WOMEN  ATTHE  HAGUE 


Jane  Addams  -  Emily  G.  Balch  -  Alick  Hamilton 


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WOMEN   AT   THE    HAGUE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

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ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

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THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


WOMEN  AT  THE 
HAGUE 

The  International  Congress  of  Women 
and  its  Ke suits 


BY  THREE  DELEGATES  TO  THE  CONGRESS 
FROM  THE  UNITED  STATES 

JANE   ADDAMS 

PRESIDENT   INTERNATIONAL   CONGRESS    OF  WOMEN    AT  THE   HAGUE 
AND    OF   THE   WOMAN'S   PEACE   PARTY   OF   AMERICA 

EMILY   G.    BALCH 

PROFESSOR   OF   ECONOMICS   AND   SOCIOLOGY,   WELLESLEY   COLLEGE 

ALICE   HAMILTON 

INVESTIGATOR   OF   INDUSTRIAL   DISEASES,    UNITED   STATES 
DEPARTMENT   OF   LABOR 


He&j  gotk 
THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1915, 
By   the  MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1915. 


KortoooB  ^PrfB« 

J.  8.  Cushlnp  Co.  —  Berwick  <k  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mkss.,  U.S.A. 


SRLT 

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PREFATORY   NOTE 

The  following  pages  give  an  account  of  the 
International  Congress  of  Women,  convened  at 
The  Hague  in  April,  19 15,  and  of  the  journeys 
undertaken  by  two  delegations  from  that  Congress. 

Much  of  the  material  has  already  appeared  in 
The  Survey^  and  is  obviously  journalistic  in  char- 
acter. It  may  be  of  value,  however,  during  these 
days  of  much  war  correspondence,  as  a  report  of 
European  conditions  from  the  point  of  view  of 
that  peace  sentiment  which  survives  in  the  midst 
of  every  war,  but  which  is  not  easily  uncovered. 

If  an  apology  were  needed  for  putting  such 
slight  material  into  a  book,  it  may  be  stated  that 
the  widespread  interest  in  the  separate  articles 
seemed  to  justify  presenting  them  in  convenient 
form. 

It  is  further  hoped  that  this  recital  by  three 
American  women  may  correct  the  impression  made 
upon  the  public  by  the  contradictory  accounts 
given  through  the  press,  and  that  the  reader  may 
become  interested  in  the  official  report  of  the 
Congress. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Journey   and   Impressions   of  the  Con- 
gress         .         .         .          Emily  G.  Balch  i 
11.     At  the  War  Capitals         Alice  Hatniltoti  22 

III.  The  Revolt  against  War    Jane  Addams  55 

(a)  By  Certain  Young  Men     ...       59 
(i5)  By  Groups  of  Civilians      ...       75 

IV.  Factors  in  Continuing  the  War     . 

Jane  Addams       82 

(a)  The  Censored  Press          ...  82 

((5)  Isolation  of  Peace  Advocates    .         .  87 

(c)  No  Adequate  Offer  of  Negotiations    .  92 

V.     At  THE  Northern  Capitals  £»«■/>' G^.  >5a/(r/j:  99 

VI.     The  Time  for  Making  Peace  . 

Emily  G.  Balch  iii 

VII.   Women  and  Internationalism  . 

Jane  Addams     1 24 

APPENDICES 

Opinions  of  the  Congress 143 

Some  Particulars  about  the  Congress  .  .  .  146 
Resolutions  adopted  by  the  Congress  ;  Manifesto 
issued  by  the  Delegations  ;  Synopsis  of  Argu- 
ment on  Continuous  Mediation  without  Armis- 
tice ;  by  Jtilia  Grace  Wales,  a  delegate  to  the 
Congress  from  the  University  of  Wisconsin        .     150 

vii 


WOMEN    AT    THE 
HAGUE 


CHAPTER  I 

JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THE 
CONGRESS 

Emily  G.  Balch 

When  ^  I  sailed  on  the  Noordam  in  April 
with  the  forty-two  other  American  del- 
egates to  the  International  Congress  of 
Women  at  The  Hague,  it  looked  doubtful 
to  me,  as  it  did  to  many  others,  how 
valuable  the  meeting  could  be  made.  I  felt, 
however,  that  even  a  shadow  of  chance  to  serve 
the  cause  of  peace  could  not  to-day  be  refused. 

*  A  letter,  with  additions  and  changes,  written  from  The 
Hague,  May  s,  1915,  to  the  students  of  Wellesley  College; 
printed  in  The  Wellesley  College  News,  and  in  part  in  Jus 
Suffragi,  London. 

B  I 


2  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

Never  have  I  been  so  thankful  for  any 
decision.  As  I  look  at  it  now,  the  under- 
taking repaid  all  that  it  cost  us  a  hundred- 
fold. 

In  this  world  upheaval  the  links  that  bind 
the  peoples  have  been  strained  and  snapped 
on  every  side.  Of  all  the  international 
gatherings  that  help  to  draw  the  nations 
together,  since  the  fatal  days  of  July,  1914, 
practically  none  have  been  convened.  Science, 
medicine,  reform,  labor,  religion  —  not  one 
of  these  causes  has  been  able  as  yet  to  gather 
its  followers  from  across  the  dividing  frontiers. 

The  women,  fifteen  hundred  of  them  and 
more,  have  come  together  and  for  four  days 
conferred,  not  on  remote  and  abstract  ques- 
tions but  on  the  vital  subject  of  international 
relations.  EngHsh  and  Scotch,  German, 
Austrian,  Hungarian,  ItaHan,  PoHsh,  Belgian, 
Dutch,  American,  Danish,  Norwegian,  and 
Swedish  all  were  represented.  The  French, 
alas,  have  not  been  able  to  be  with  us,  but  on 
the  other  hand  the  French  women  have  been 
the  earliest  to  actually  form  their  national 
organization  in  support  of  the  programme 
worked  out  at  the  Congress. 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  3 

Our  whole  experience  has  been  an  interest- 
ing one.  Sunny  weather  and  a  boat  steadied 
by  a  heavy  load  of  grain  made  it  possible 
for  the  forty-two  American  delegates  to  the 
Hague  Congress  to  meet  and  study  and 
deliberate  together  during  the  voyage.  The 
secretary  of  the  Chicago  Peace  Society,  who 
had  come  with  us,  gave  a  brief  course  of 
lectures  on  peace  questions,  and  after  these 
were  over  we  set  about  the  consideration  of 
the  preUminary  programme  submitted  to  us 
by  the  committee  at  The  Hague  who  were 
arranging  the  Congress.  Some  days  we 
met  morning,  afternoon,  and  evening  and  we 
added  largely  to  the  contents  of  the  pro- 
gramme as  sent  to  us.  We  recommended 
the  so-called  ''Wisconsin  Plan"  for  con- 
tinuous mediation  without  armistice.  This 
plan,  as  formulated  by  one  of  our  delegates. 
Miss  Wales,  an  instructor  in  the  EngHsh 
department  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
had  been  officially  endorsed  by  the  Wisconsin 
Legislature  and  recommended  by  them  to  the 
consideration  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  We  had  just  succeeded  in  working 
out  our  proposals   by  the  time  we  sighted 


4  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

land,  and  it  was  well  we  had  done  so,  for, 
though  we  were  on  the  Noordam  for  five 
days  longer,  we  were  hardly  placid  enough 
to  work  to  advantage. 

We  were  first  stopped  one  evening  under 
the  menace  of  a  Httle  machine  gun  trained 
full  upon  us  by  a  boat  alongside  while  two 
German  stowaways  were  taken  off  and 
searched  and  carried  away.  If  the  pro- 
ceeding had  been  staged  for  dramatic  pur- 
poses, it  could  not  have  been  more  effective. 
One  prisoner,  with  a  rope  about  him  to  pre- 
vent his  escaping  or  falling  overboard, 
shouted  Hoch  der  Kaiser^  DeiUschland  iiber 
Alles  before  he  stepped  upon  the  swaying 
ladder  over  the  ship's  side;  both  prisoners 
in  the  boat  below  us,  with  hands  held  up 
above  their  heads,  were  searched  in  front 
of  that  ever-pointing  little  cannon,  then  the 
sailors  carried  blankets  and  cups  of  hot 
coffee  to  them  in  the  hold.  All  this,  lighted 
by  the  ship's  lanterns,  was  just  below  us  as 
we  hung  over  the  ship's  side.  Every  now 
and  then  out  of  the  darkness  a  new  vessel 
drew  up  to  us.  At  one  time  five  were  along- 
side. 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  5 

At  last  we  were  allowed  to  proceed,  but 
not  for  long.  Next  morning  not  far  from 
Dover  we  were  stopped  again  and  there  we 
were  held  motionless  for  four  mortal  days, 
almost  like  prisoners  of  war.  We  chafed 
and  fretted  and  telegraphed  and  brought  to 
bear  all  the  influence  that  we  could  command, 
but  there  we  stuck,  not  allowed  to  land,  not 
allowed  to  have  any  one  come  aboard,  and 
for  all  one  day,  Sunday,  with  no  chance  even 
to  send  or  receive  messages.  When  telegrams 
were  possible  they  were  severely  censored, 
and  no  indication  of  our  whereabouts  was 
allowed.  **A11  in  the  Downs  our  fleet  was 
moored,"  the  old  song  says,  and  so  it  was  and 
so  was  the  Noordam.  Around  us  were 
vessels  not  only  of  the  English  fleet,  but  of 
every  sort,  Norwegian,  Greek,  Spanish,  and 
plain  "United  States,"  all  with  immense 
flags  painted  on  their  sides.  Despatch  boats, 
torpedo  boats,  and  torpedo  destroyers  rushed 
past,  sometimes  five  in  a  string;  a  silver- 
gUstening  dirigible,  probably  scouting  for 
submarines,  was  visible  all  one  lovely  after- 
noon. Once  we  saw  firing,  probably  the 
shooting  of  a  stray  mine.     Inshore  gleamed 


6  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

the  white  and  green  of  the  chalk  cHfFs,  and 
a  cosy  old  windmill  twirled  its  leisurely 
arms. 

It  was  pretty,  it  was  interesting,  but  as 
the  days  slipped  by  and  the  date  of  the 
Congress  drew  near  and  people  spoke  of 
possible  weeks  of  delay,  it  grew  harder  and 
harder  to  bear.  At  last,  twenty  minutes 
after  getting  a  telegram  from  Ambassador 
Page  saying  that  he  could  do  nothing  for  us, 
we  were  released  as  mysteriously  as  we  had 
been  stopped,  and  by  Tuesday  afternoon 
were  landing  in  Rotterdam,  The  first  ses- 
sion of  the  Congress  was  scheduled  for 
eight  that  evening  at  The  Hague.  We  got 
through  the  formalities  of  passports  and 
customs,  took  the  train  to  the  capital  city, 
only  half  an  hour  away,  were  assigned  to 
hotels  by  a  friendly  Dutch  Committee  of 
hospitality,  washed  and  dined  more  or 
less,  and  were  on  the  spot  —  in  time,  after 
all. 

Not  so  the  English  delegation,  i8o  of 
them  all  told.  The  Governments  had  granted 
passports  to  only  twenty  and  even  of  these 
not  one  could  leave  England,  as  all  traffic,  in- 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  7 

eluding  mails,  was  stopped  for  the  time  be- 
ing between  England  and  Holland.  Happily 
Mrs.  Pethick-Lawrence  had  come  over 
on  the  Noordam  and  Miss  MacMillan  and 
Miss  Courtney  had  gone  to  The  Hague  earlier 
and  the  three  did  yeoman  service  through- 
out the  Congress.  From  France  no  women 
could  or  would  come,  from  Russia  and  Servia 
none,  and  from  Japan  quite  naturally  none. 
From  the  other  great  belligerent  nations 
Germany  sent  a  splendid  group  of  twenty- 
eight  women,  among  the  most  impressive 
of  whom  were  Dr.  Augspurg  and  Frl.  Hey- 
mann.  From  Belgium  five  women  came  a 
day  after  the  Congress  had  begun.  They 
were  given  an  ovation,  and  one  of  the  German 
members  of  the  presiding  committee  moved 
that  they  all  be  invited  to  seats  on  the 
platform,  and  this  was  done.  Among  the 
neutral  nations  the  Dutch  were  naturally 
most  largely  represented ;  it  is  not  quite 
easy  to  say  how  many  of  those  who  thronged 
the  hall  were  members  of  the  Congress  and 
how  many  were  visitors  only,  but  apparently 
there  were  about  iioo  voting.  The  next 
largest    group    were    the    Americans,    about 


8  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

fifty  in  all,  for  some  eight  had  gone  earlier 
than  the  party  on  the  Noordam.  Norway, 
Sweden,  and  Denmark  were  all  well  repre- 
sented with  respectively  twelve,  sixteen,  and 
six  each. 

The  Congress  was  too  large  for  any  of  the 
rooms  at  the  Peace  Palace  or  the  famous 
Ridderzaal  and  met  in  a  great  hall  at  the 
Dierentuin.  In  general  the  mornings  were 
given  to  business  and  the  evenings  to  pubhc 
addresses,  while  the  afternoons  were  free 
for  committee  meetings  and,  to  those  not 
so  occupied,  for  making  friends  and  seeing 
sights.  The  most  wonderful  of  these  were 
the  tuHp  fields  near  Haarlem,  great  stretches 
of  solid  color.  There  proved  to  be  so  much 
to  do  that  in  spite  of  making  very  good 
progress  at  each  meeting  two  extra  sessions, 
one  Friday  afternoon  and  one  Saturday 
morning,  were  added. 

The  programme  and  rules  of  order  agreed 
on  from  the  first  shut  out  all  discussions 
of  relative  national  responsibility  for  the 
present  war  or  the  conduct  of  it  or  of 
methods  of  conducting  future  wars.  We 
met    on    the    common     ground     beyond  — 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  9 

the   ground   of  preparation   for    permanent 
peace. 

The  two  fundamental  planks,  adherence 
to  which  was  a  condition  of  membership, 
were  :  (a)  That  international  disputes  should 
be  settled  by  pacific  means ;  (b)  that  the 
Parhamentary  franchise  should  be  extended 
to  women. 

This  meant  a  very  substantial  unity  of 
opinion,  which  greatly  facilitated  the  dis- 
cussions, and  I  think  that  this  is  perhaps  a 
sufficient  justification  of  the  policy  which 
has  been  criticised  in  some  quarters  of  mak- 
ing this  Congress  a  suffrage  as  well  as  a 
peace  meeting.  Some  of  those  present  at 
the  Congress,  some  of  the  Dutch  ladies 
especially,  and  many  of  us  Americans,  also, 
felt  that  the  suffrage  element  was  over- 
stressed  ;  but,  after  all,  it  was  the  question 
of  peace  that,  out  and  out,  dominated  the 
discussions  and  focussed  our  purpose  and 
interest.  Yet  I  hear  that  many  Dutch 
ladies  went  opposed  to  suffrage  and  came 
away  convinced  that  if  women  are  to  do 
anything  effective  for  peace  they  must  have 
a  voice  in  pubhc  questions. 


10  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

A  series  of  brilliant  evening  meetings  were 
held  during  the  Congress,  at  which  the 
chair  was  taken  respectively  by  Dr.  Aletta 
Jacobs,  of  Holland,  Dr.  Anita  Augspurg,  of 
Germany,  and  Miss  Chrystal  MacMillan,  of 
England. 

On  the  first  evening.  Dr.  Aletta  Jacobs, 
the  President  of  the  Dutch  Executive  Com- 
mittee, in  welcoming  the  members  of  the 
Congress,  expressed  her  appreciation  of  the 
courage  shown  by  those  women  who  had 
braved  all  the  dangers,  risks,  and  difficulties 
of  travelling  in  war  time  from  one  country 
to  another. 

"With  mourning  hearts  we  stand  united 
here,"  she  said.  "We  grieve  for  many  brave 
young  men  who  have  lost  their  lives  on  the 
battlefield  before  attaining  their  full  man- 
hood ;  we  mourn  with  the  poor  mothers 
bereft  of  their  sons;  with  the  thousands  of 
young  widows  and  fatherless  children,  and 
we  feel  that  we  can  no  longer  endure  in 
this  twentieth  century  of  civilization  that 
governments  should  tolerate  brute  force 
as  the  only  solution  of  international  dis- 
putes." 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  il 

Dr.  Jacobs  proceeded  to  explain  why  the 
Congress  had  been  called  in  the  midst  of 
the  war  instead  of  postponing  it  until  the 
days  of  peace,  and  indicated  how  many 
more  difficulties  such  an  international  gather- 
ing would  present  if  it  had  to  include  repre- 
sentatives of  both  victorious  and  conquered 
nations. 

"Although  our  efforts  may  not  shorten 
the  present  war,"  she  exclaimed,  "there  is 
no  doubt  that  this  pacific  assemblage  of  so 
many  nations  will  have  its  moral  effect 
upon  the  belligerent  countries.  .  .  .  Those 
of  us  who  have  convened  this  Congress,  how- 
ever, have  never  called  it  a  Peace  Congress, 
but  an  International  Congress  of  Women 
assembled  to  protest  against  war,  and  to 
suggest  steps  which  may  lead  to  warfare 
becoming  an  impossibility." 

The  meeting  was  further  addressed  by 
Miss  Lindhagen,  a  town  councillor  of  Stock- 
holm, Sweden,  Mrs.  Pethick-Lawrence  of 
Great  Britain,  and  others. 

At  the  public  meeting  of  the  second  even- 
ing of  the  Congress,  there  was  not  a  vacant 
seat   in   the   large   hall.     The    meeting   was 


12  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

addressed  by  Miss  Holbrook,  of  Chicago, 
on  the  resolution  which  was  passed  at  the 
preceding  meeting  as  to  the  education  of 
children ;  by  Mrs.  De  jong  Van  Beek  en 
Donk  of  The  Hague,  who  showed  herself 
master  of  the  subject,  on  Arbitration  and  Con- 
ciliation; and  by  Mme.  Rosika  Schwimmer, 
who  gave  one  of  her  most  stirring  addresses. 

On  the  third  evening  the  meeting  was 
addressed  by  Miss  Thora  Daugaard  of  Den- 
mark, Miss  Kathleen  Courtney  of  England, 
Miss  Leonora  O'Reilly  of  the  Women's 
Trades  Union  League  of  the  United  States, 
by  the  President  of  the  Congress,  and  others, 
including  Frau  Lecher  of  Austria,  who  made 
one  of  the  most  touching  speeches  of  the 
Congress.  She  had  been  in  the  very  midst 
of  the  miseries  of  war  for  months  in  her  own 
country,  working  in  the  hospitals,  where  she 
had  seen  the  most  intense  suffering  borne 
without  complaint ;  but  what  was  the  use 
of  healing  wounds  if  they  were  to  be  torn 
open  again  .'' 

At  each  of  the  evening  meetings  greetings 
were  read  from  individuals  and  organizations, 
in  many  countries,  including  Bulgaria,  Ice- 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  13 

land,  Portugal,  Poland,  Turkey,  and  from 
such  women  as  Olive  Schreiner,  Ellen  Key, 
and  Mrs.  Chapman  Catt.  More  than  three 
hundred  such  formal  greetings  were  received, 
of  which  only  a  small  portion  could  be  read. 
About  thirty  protests  were  also  received. 

One  of  the  most  warmly  debated  questions 
was  on  Madame  Schwimmer's  proposal, 
which  was  finally  accepted,  to  send  delegates 
to  the  different  capitals,  both  belhgerent  and 
neutral,  to  carry  to  them  the  resolutions 
voted  by  the  Congress. 

The  programme  that  has  been  worked  out 
is,  I  feel,  a  very  able  document ;  certain 
good  authorities  think  that,  profiting  as  it 
did  by  many  preceding  studies  and  con- 
gresses, it  is  the  best  peace  platform  that 
has  yet  been  drawn  up.^  It  would  make  an 
admirable  basis  for  a  brief  study  by  an 
individual,  or  a  club,  or  a  Httle  group  of 
friends,  of  the  problem  of  peace  in  the  con- 
structive sense.     For  what  we  are  working 

^  The    official   report    of    the    International    Congress  of 

Women  at  The  Hague,  or  copies  of  the  resolutions,  may  be 

obtained  from  the  Women's  Peace  Party  of  America,  at 
116  So.  Michigan  Ave.,  Chicago. 


14  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

for  is  not  what  our  English  friends  call 
"damp  angel  Peace,"  not  stagnation,  nor 
quietism,  not  a  weak  giving  way  to  pres- 
sure, but  a  world  in  which  national 
activities  reenforce  instead  of  neutralizing 
one  another.  - 

A  very  curious  thing  has  been  the  attitude 
of  the  majority  of  the  press  representatives 
who  were  present.  Most  of  them  apparently 
had  been  sent  to  get  an  amusing  story  of  an 
international  peace  gathering  of  women  — 
"base  and  silly"  enough  to  try  to  meet  in 
war  time  — breaking  up  in  quarrel.  Day  by 
day  they  went  away  with  faces  long  with  dis- 
appointment. "Nothing  doing  to-day,  but 
something  worth  while  may  happen  to-mor- 
row." In  England  the  Congress  was  re- 
ported to  be  managed  in  the  interest  of 
Germany;  in  Germany  the  delegates  were 
threatened  with  social  boycott  for  attending 
a  pro-British  meeting;  and  in  many  coun- 
tries the  meetings  were  reported  to  have 
been  either  practically  unattended  or  to 
have  closed  in  a  row.  Nothing  could  be 
further  from  the  truth  than  all  these  stories. 
The  largest  hall  in  The  Hague  was  needed 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  15 

for  the  meetings,  over  two  thousand  often 
being  present;  and,  difficult  as  it  is  to  con- 
duct business  with  so  mixed  and  differing 
a  constituency,  with  different  languages, 
different  rules  of  parliamentary  procedure, 
and  divergent  views.  Miss  Addams  and  the 
other  officials  carried  on  orderly  and  effective 
sessions,  marked  by  the  most  active  will  for 
unity  that  I  have  ever  felt  in  an  assemblage. 

What  stands  out  most  strongly  among  all 
my  impressions  of  those  thrilling  and  strained 
days  at  The  Hague  is  the  sense  of  the  wonder 
of  the  beautiful  spirit  of  the  brave,  self- 
controlled  women  who  dared  ridicule  and 
every  sort  of  difficulty  to  express  a  passionate 
human  sj^mpathy,  not  inconsistent  with  pa- 
triotism, but  transcending  it. 

The  sessions  were  heavily  fraught  with 
emotion,  it  could  not  be  otherwise,  but  the 
emotion  found  little  expression  in  words. 
When  it  did,  it  was  on  a  high  and  noble 
plane.  There  was  something  profoundly 
stirring  and  inexpressibly  inspiriting  in  the 
attitude  of  these  women,  many  of  them  so 
deeply  stricken,  so  closely  bound  to  the 
cause  of  their  country  as  they  understand 


1 6  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

it,  yet  so  full  of  faith  in  the  will  for  good  of 
their  technical  enemies  and  so  united  in 
their  common  purpose  to  find  the  principles 
on  which  permanent  relations  of  international 
friendship  and  cooperation  can  ultimately 
be  estabhshed. 

There  was  not  one  clash  or  even  danger 
of  a  clash  over  national  differences ;  on  every 
hand  was  the  same  moving  consciousness  of 
the  development  of  a  new  spirit  which  is 
growing  in  the  midst  of  the  war  as  the  roots 
of  the  wheat  grow  under  the  drifts  and 
tempests  of  winter. 

Because  there  were  no  clashes  along 
national  lines,  it  must  not  be  thought, 
however,  that  the  Congress  was  stagnantly 
placid.  People  cared  too  much  for  the  sub- 
ject under  debate  for  that  to  be  possible. 
There  were  most  vigorous  differences  of 
opinion  over  details,  and  some  energetic 
misunderstandings,  for  which  the  necessity 
of  translating  each  speech  into  two  other 
languages  supplied  many  openings,  besides 
the  difficulties  arising  from  different  par- 
liamentary usages.  One's  every  faculty  was 
on    the    stretch    hour    after    hour,    and    we 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  17 

wondered    afterwards    why    we    felt    so    ex- 
hausted. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  impression  made  on 
me  by  the  friendhness  of  the  women  from  the 
warring  countries.  Perhaps  the  next  most 
powerful  impressions  were,  first,  the  closer 
sense  of  the  tragic  horror  of  the  war,  of  which 
some  of  the  women  bore  the  imprint  in  their 
very  faces,  not  to  speak  of  what  they  said ; 
and,  secondly,  of  the  fear  of  the  men  and 
women  of  the  neutral  countries,  lest  they, 
too,  be  dragged  into  the  pit  where  the  other 
nations  are  strugghng.  The  women  who 
have  the  vote  (that  is,  the  Norwegian  and 
Danish,  for  the  Finnish  women  could  not 
get  to  The  Hague)  showed  an  additional 
timidity  —  the  timidity  of  those  who  are 
in  a  critical  and  deUcate  situation,  and  who, 
being  themselves  jointly  responsible,  have 
to  take  every  step  with  the  greatest  dis- 
creetness. 

Since  the  close  of  the  Congress  some  of 
those  of  us  who  have  been  chosen  to  go  as 
delegates  to  various  Governments  have  called 
on  some  of  the  foreign  ministers  at  The 
Hague    as    a    prehminary    step    and    some 


1 8  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

very  illuminating  things  have  been  said  to 
us.  One  of  the  ministers  said  the  most 
important  thing  that  we  could  do  was  to 
help  to  educate  children  away  from  milita- 
rism. Another  deprecated  all  agitation  of 
the  subject  of  peace,  as  it  weakens  the  energy 
for  war  in  case  war  comes. 

It  has  been  a  surprise  to  me  to  find  how 
much  this  very  innocent  gathering  has  been 
regarded.  I  imagined  that  it  might  very 
likely  simpl}^  be  ignored.  On  the  contrary, 
it  gives  considerable  exercise  to  the  minds  of 
various  belligerent  Governments,  and  the 
great  news  agencies  have  found  it  worth 
while  to  invent  all  sorts  of  false  reports 
about  it,  as  I  have  said.  Futile  as  talk  seems, 
the  way  it  is  dreaded  shows  that  it  does 
have  its  effect.  Ideas  seem  so  unreal,  so 
powerless,  before  the  vast  physical  force  of 
the  military  masses  to-day;  it  is  easy  to 
forget  that  it  is  only  ideas  that  created  that 
force  and  that  keep  it  in  action.  Let  war 
once  be  disbelieved  in,  and  that  force  melts 
into  nothing. 

Certainly  the  Congress  has  made  its 
contribution  to  the  beginning  of  a  piece  of 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  19 

long,  serious,  enthusiastic  work  which  is  to 
be  done  in  every  country  and  all  the  time ; 
the  work  of  "changing  the  mind  of  Europe, " 
as  Professor  Schevill  says,  of  creating  and 
making  general  the  state  of  mind  which  does 
not  desire  to  profit  at  the  expense  of  other 
peoples,  which  desires  to  decide  difficulties 
by  reason  and  not  by  force,  and  which  re- 
places national  and  social  prejudices  by 
mutual  goodwill  and  understanding.  This 
attitude  will  express  itself  in  opposition  to 
armaments  (by  sea  or  land)  and  in  a  patient 
readiness  to  wait  for  the  righting  of  wrongs 
by  agreement. 

In  the  distress  of  mind  that  the  war 
breeds  in  every  thinking  and  feeling  person, 
there  is  a  poignant  relief  in  finding  a  channel 
through  which  to  work  for  peace.  The 
rehabilitating  the  wounded  that  they  may 
rise  and  go  to  the  front  again,  all  that  co- 
operates with  the  mutual  destruction  of 
war,  absorbs  energy  and  expresses  sympathy, 
but  it  is  not  the  work  that  many  of  us  long  to 
find  a  way  to  do.  In  writing  and  making 
available  our  forces,  —  our  pennies,  our  time, 
our    reading    hours,    our    intelligences,    our 


20  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

sympathies  —  we  can  cooperate  toward 
peace,  longing  for  which,  as  Lowell  said, 

"our  spirits  wilt 
Like  shipwrecked  men's  on  rafts  for  water." 

It  is  important  to  have  a  great  reservoir  of 
spiritual  and  intellectual  energy,  to  have 
ramifications  in  every  village  and  club 
and  church,  so  that  when  the  word  goes  out, 
"This  is  to  be  done  now,"  we  can  all  line 
up  behind  our  leaders  and  act  in  unison  in 
all  the  countries  of  the  war-racked  world. 
Study  clubs  and  peace  forums  and  subscrip- 
tions and  keeping  oneself  informed  are 
humdrum  matters,  yet  they  too  are  hitched 
to  a  star,  the  star  of  hope  in  human  destiny 
beyond  the  war  clouds. 

The  Hague  is  such  a  preeminently  civilized 
city  —  so  tidy,  so  clean,  so  safe,  so  pleasant, 
so  pretty.  Man  has  done  such  wonders  in 
subduing  nature,  in  creating  a  world  in  the 
image  of  his  own  desires,  a  background  for 
happy  human  living;  and  in  every  city  in 
Europe  essentially  the  same  conditions  exist 
for  people  substantially  the  same.  In  real- 
ity    Europe    is    already,    in    normal    times, 


JOURNEY  AND  IMPRESSIONS  21 

one  single  society.  Yet  perfectly  artificial 
national  boundaries  are  made  to  signify 
collective  greeds  and  hatreds,  and  only  a 
few  miles  off  the  fields  are  permanently 
ruined,  and  the  countryside  is  poisoned  with 
corpses,  and  all  the  decent  thrifty  Httle  homes 
are  smashed  to  dust,  and  the  irreplaceable 
beauties  of  the  cities  are  destroyed,  and 
Hving,  thinking  men  are  dehberately 
killing  one  another.  The  soldiers  in  the 
hospitals  say  to  their  nurses:  "We  don't 
know  why  we  are  fighting.  Can't  you 
women  help  us  ?  We  can't  do  anything." 
That  is  the  very  question  we  are  trying  to 
answer. 


CHAPTER  II 

AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS 
Alice  Hamilton 

The  delegations  to  the  war  capitals  con- 
sisted of  the  president  and  vice-president  of 
the  Congress,  Miss  Addams  of  Chicago  and 
Dr.  Jacobs  of  Amsterdam.  Frau  Wollften 
Palthe  of  The  Hague  and  mj^self,  who  ac- 
companied them,  were  not  official  members  of 
the  delegation  and  usually  took  no  part  in 
the  formal  interviews  with  ministers  of 
foreign  affairs  or  chancellors ;  so  that  my 
account  of  our  wanderings  must  be  con- 
fined to  the  unofficial  parts,  to  the  people 
we  met  informally  and  the  impressions  we 
gained  as  we  passed  through  the  countries 
and  stopped  in  the  capitals  and  saw  the  life 
there. 

There  were  absolutely  no  hardships  en- 
countered anywhere,  not  even  real  dis- 
comforts.    Inconveniences  there  were  in  the 

22 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  23 

shape  of  tiresome  waiting  in  consular  offices 
for  passports,  —  a  formality  which  had  to 
be  repeated  betw^een  each  two  countries ; 
but  aside  from  that,  travel  was  easy  and 
comfortable.  The  first  Government  visited 
by  the  delegation  was  the  Dutch,  since  the 
Congress  was  held  at  The  Hague,  and  after 
that  came  Great  Britain,  where  the  delega- 
tion saw  the  minister  of  foreign  affairs  and 
other  officials.  During  that  week  I  was  in 
Belgium,  so  that  the  experiences  in  London 
given  later  in  this  chapter  were  crowded  into 
the  week  we  spent  there  while  waiting  for 
our  return  steamer  to  America. 

The  beginning  of  our  joint  pilgrimage  was 
on  May  19,  when  with  the  two  Dutch  women 
we  left  Amsterdam  for  the  day's  journey  to 
Berhn.  Germany  looked  far  more  natural 
than  we  had  been  led  to  expect;  indeed, 
the  only  unusual  feature  to  my  eyes  was  the 
absence  of  young  and  middle-aged  men  in  the 
fields,  where  the  work  was  being  carried  on 
almost  entirely  by  women,  children,  and  old 
men. 

We  reached  Berlin  at  night  and  the  next 
morning  as  we  drank  our  coffee  a  card  was 


24  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

brought  up  of  a  prominent  Socialist,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Reichstag  and  an  authority  on 
city  planning,  who  visited  this  country  some 
two  years  ago  and  spoke  in  many  of  our 
large  cities.  We  went  down  to  meet  him,  but 
seeing  no  one  in  the  room  except  a  few 
officers,  thought  there  was  some  mistake; 
when,  to  our  surprise,  a  tall,  blond  soldier>. 
came  up  and  saluted  and  we  recognized  that 
this  was  he.  We  had  never  supposed  that 
he  would  actually  be  in  the  army,  though  we 
knew  that  he  was  one  of  the  mihtary  Social- 
ists, —  indeed,  one  of  those  selected  by  the 
Kaiser  to  go  on  a  mission  to  Italy  and  try  to 
persuade  the  Italian  Socialists  that  Italy 
should  remain  loyal  to  the  Triple  Alliance. 

We  talked  together  and  he  told  us  of 
Italy's  probable  entrance  into  the  war,  in- 
sisting that  it  would  be  a  matter  of  no  mili- 
tary importance,  but  an  act  of  unforgivable 
treachery.  He  had  been  up  all  the  night 
before  at  the  foreign  office  and  his  eyes  had 
that  dull  hunted  look  that  goes  with  sleep- 
lessness and  intense  emotion.  He  was  the 
first  one  to  attack  us  on  the  subject  of 
America's  sale  of  munitions  of  war  to  the 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  25 

allies,  an  attack  to  which  we  became  wearily 
accustomed  before  we  left  Germany  and 
Austria.  He  was  just  back  from  nine  days 
at  the  front  and  claimed  that  every  shell 
which  had  fallen  in  that  part  of  the  line  while 
he  was  there  was  an  American  shell.  Never- 
theless, he  was  most  friendly  and  readily 
promised  to  do  what  he  could  to  secure  an 
interview  for  the  delegation  with  the  foreign 
office. 

After  he  left,  I  went  out  on  a  few  errands 
and  got  my  first  impression  of  Berlin,  The 
city,  of  course,  was  in  perfect  order,  yet  the 
war  met  me  on  all  sides.  The  walls  were 
placarded  and  the  windows  full  of  appeals 
for  money  for  all  sorts  of  objects;  for 
blinded  soldiers,  for  the  relief  of  the  widows 
of  the  heroes  of  a  certain  battle,  for  a  woman's 
fund  to  be  made  up  of  pennies  and  presented 
to  the  Kaiser,  and  —  much  the  most  terrible 
of  all  —  long  lists  of  the  latest  casualties. 
But  there  were  no  wounded  soldiers  to  be 
seen  and  no  evidence  of  poverty  and  suffer- 
ing, the  rehef  work  is  apparently  well  done. 
Later  on,  when  we  were  taken  around  by  one 
of  the  leading  philanthropists  of  BerHn  we 


26  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

saw  how  work  has  been  provided  for  those 
who  need  it,  for  the  women  especially.  I 
had  a  curious  sensation  on  that  expedition 
of  having  seen  and  heard  it  all  before ;  and 
then  I  remembered  that  just  a  little  while 
ago  in  Brussels  I  had  seen  gentle  Belgian 
ladies  organizing  work  for  the  Belgian  poor 
in  exactly  the  same  way  as  these  gentle^" 
German  ladies  were  doing  it  for  the  German 
poor.  Both  in  Paris  and  in  London  it  was 
the  same. 

We  had  been  told  before  we  went  to  Ger- 
many that  the  people  were  absolutely  united 
in  a  determination  to  fight  until  Germany 
was  victorious,  that  there  were  not  a  dozen 
men  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  who 
were  even  thinking,  much  less  talking,  of 
peace. 

Of  course,  such  unanimity  is  inconceivable 
in  a  nation  of  sixty-five  million  thinking 
people,  and  it  was  easy  enough  for  us  to 
convince  ourselves  that  it  did  not  exist. 
From  the  first  we  met  men  and  women  who 
were  pacifists.  The  one  who  stands  out 
most  prominently  in  my  mind  is  the  clergy- 
man, who  has  gathered  around  him  a  group 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  27 

of  people  free  from  bitterness  and  from  ultra- 
patriotism,  fair-minded,  and  deeply  sorrowful 
over  the  war.  Many  of  them  belong  also 
to  a  group  that  calls  itself  Der  Bund  Neues 
Vaterland,  which  stands  for  very  much  the 
same  things  as  the  Union  of  Democratic 
Control  in  England,  —  that  is,  for  a  peace 
without  injustice  or  humiliating  terms  to 
any  people,  no  matter  who  is  victor. 

Of  course  we  also  met  people  who  held  the 
point  of  view  which  we  in  America  have 
been  led  to  think  universal  in  Germany.  The 
Lusitania  was  still  in  every  one's  mind  and 
the  first  note  from  America  had  just  been 
received.  I  talked  to  many  people  who 
accepted  the  sinking  of  the  vessel  without 
questioning.  She  was  carrying  ammunition, 
she  was  armed,  the  passengers  had  been 
warned  and  had  no  more  reason  to  complain 
than  if  they  had  dehberately  entered  a  cit}^ 
that  was  being  besieged.  For  instance  at  a 
tea  one  afternoon  a  lady  of  much  sweetness 
and  intelligence  described  how  her  three 
little  girls  had  each  adopted  a  convalescent 
soldier,  and  how  they  saved  their  pennies  to 
buy   tobacco    for   their    proteges    and    gave 


28  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

them  one  of  their  three  daily  slices  of  bread. 
Then  the  lady  continued  in  exactly  the 
same  tone  :  "And  the  day  the  news  came  of 
the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  we  all  took  a 
holiday.  There  were  no  lessons,  and  we 
sent  for  our  soldiers,  and  all  went  off  for  a 
picnic  in  the  country."  These  people  were 
absolutely  sure  that  Germany  was  fighting 
in  self-defence,  and  toward  the  invasion  of 
Belgium  most  of  them  held  the  belief  that  it 
had  been  a  military  necessity,  but  that  there 
must  be  no  permanent  occupation.  No  one 
believed  in  the  tales  of  atrocities.  "If  yon 
knew  our  good  German  soldiers,  you  would 
see  how  impossible  all  that  is." 

As  for  our  selling  munitions  of  war  to  the 
allies,  the  resentment  it  arouses  is  almost 
incredible.  Many  of  them  seem  to  suppose 
that  all  the  ammunition  used  by  the  allies 
comes  from  America.  The  American  wife 
of  a  German  nobleman  told  us  that  a  widowed 
friend  had  come  to  see  her  with  a  bit  of 
shell  which  some  soldier  had  sent  her  from 
the  front,  saying  it  was  the  shell  that  had 
killed  her  husband.  And  the  woman  had 
shown    her    the    ghastly    thing,    and    said, 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  29 

"Look  at  it  and  tell  me  if  it  is  an  American 
shell." 

We  stood  up  stoutly  for  our  country, 
arguing  that  it  was  Germany  which  had 
prevented  both  Hague  Congresses  from  pro- 
nouncing against  this  very  practice,  that 
Germany  had  herself  invariably  taken  every 
opportunity  to  sell  munitions  to  warring 
countries,  that  for  us  to  change  international 
law  and  custom  in  the  middle  of  the  present 
war  in  favor  of  Germany  and  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  allies  would  be  an  unneutral 
act,  but  it  was  mostly  useless.  I  think  we 
convinced,  perhaps,  two  or  three  men.  Most 
of  them  did  not  even  Hsten  to  our  explanation. 

There  was  no  difficulty  in  securing  an 
interview  for  the  delegation  with  the  minister 
of  foreign  affairs.  During  the  interview 
with  the  chancellor  I  waited  in  a  spacious 
room  in  the  chancellery  on  the  Wilhelm 
Strasse,  looking  out  on  a  great  shady  garden 
right  in  the  heart  of  Berlin.  From  there  we 
went  to  pay  some  calls  on  men  who  we 
thought  might  throw  some  Hght  on  the 
question  of  the  possibiHty  of  neutral  nations 
acting   as   negotiators   between  the   warring 


30  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

countries.  It  was  very  easy  to  secure  the 
introductions  we  wanted,  partly  through 
German  friends  and  partly  through  some 
American  newspaper  men. 

We  called  first  on  a  learned  professor  who 
did  not  seem  to  me  either  wise  or  just,  and 
his  idea  of  the  sort  of  intervention  which 
would  be  of  value  in  this  crisis  was  so  utterly 
un-American  that  we  thought  it  hardly 
worth  listening  to.  Briefly,  he  advised  that 
President  Wilson  should  use  threats  to  the 
two  chief  belligerents  and  thus  bring  them 
to  terms.  "Let  him,"  he  said,  "tell  Eng- 
land that  he  will  place  an  embargo  on  muni- 
tions of  war,  unless  she  will  accept  reasonable 
terms  for  ending  the  war,  and  let  him  tell 
Germany  that  this  embargo  will  be  lifted 
unless  Germany  does  the  same." 

Miss  Addams  told  him  that  such  a  move 
would  be  impossible,  even  if  it  were  of  any 
value  :  that  for  the  President  to  use  threats 
would  be  to  lose  his  moral  force,  and  that  he 
would  not  have  the  countr}^  behind  him.  But 
the  professor  waved  aside  as  absurd  both 
these  objections.  "Moral  influence  is  noth- 
ing,"   he   said.     "What  is  needed  is  armed 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  31 

mediation.  Your  President  has  the  right 
under  your  constitution  to  do  this ;  he  need 
not  consult  the  country." 

He  went  on  to  say  much  that  he  had 
already  said  in  print ;  that  Germany  desires 
no  new  territory  in  Europe,  but  what  she 
requires  is  colonies,  and  that  he  would  be  in 
favor  of  her  evacuating  Belgium  on  condition 
of  her  being  given  concessions  in  the  Belgian 
Congo.  He  was  one  of  the  Germans  who 
could  see  no  argument  in  defence  of  our  sale 
of  munitions  and  who  considered  the  sinking 
of  the  Lusitania  absolutely  justified.  As  we 
rose  to  go  he  said  suddenly,  "We  learned 
yesterday,  my  wife  and  I,  of  the  fourteenth 
of  our  near  relatives  who  have  died  in  this 
war."  He  sighed  heavily  —  "There  are 
others  of  course  who  are  wounded  and  ill." 

We  found  the  most  famous  journalist  of 
Germany  very  interesting.  He  is  a  little 
man  with  a  big  head,  almost  all  of  it  fore- 
head and  hair,  his  eyes  tired  and  burnt-out 
and  his  general  aspect  full  of  weary  depres- 
sion. People  had  warned  us  against  him, 
calHng  him  a  fire-eater,  one  of  the  men  who 
had  done  most  to  encourage  the  war.     To  us 


32  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

he  seemed  quite  the  contrary;  he  seemed  to 
regard  it  as  a  terrible  traged}^  He  was  very 
fair  to  our  country,  saying  that  Germany  had 
no  right  to  criticise  our  sale  of  ammunition 
to  the  allies.  He  said  he  had  alwa3^s  told  the 
Germans  that  since  they  had  a  great  advan- 
tage in  their  enormous  factories  at  Essen, 
England  naturally  must  strive  to  offset  it" 
by  an  equal  advantage,  and  this  she  had  in 
her  navy,  which  enabled  her  to  buy  the  sup- 
plies she  could  not  manufacture.  He  said 
it  was  poor  sportsmanship  for  Germany  to 
protest.  As  for  help  from  the  neutral 
nations  in  this  crisis,  he  seemed  to  think  it  the 
only  hope,  and  yet  not  an  immediate  hope. 

The  most  moving  and  impressive  inter- 
views I  recall  in  Germany  were  first  one  with 
a  young  German  soldier  full  of  a  sick  horror 
of  war,  the  other  with  a  former  Government 
official  in  Berlin,  whom  we  went  to  see  just 
after  our  conversation  with  the  journalist. 
This  man  had  known  and  loved  England  and 
he  had  believed  that  the  two  countries  had 
come  to  understand  each  other  much  better 
during  the  last  few  years  and  that  he  had 
helped    to    bring    this    about.     Then    came 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  33 

those    terrible    days    in    July    and    he    had 
struggled  against  the  men  who  were  making 
the  war,  but  he  had  gone  down  to  defeat  seeing 
all  he  had  worked  for  vanish  in  a  week  when 
his  beloved  country  determined  on  a  course 
which  to   him   could   seem   only   a   hideous 
blunder.     He   was   so  wretched   that   as   he 
talked  to  us  he  would  every  now  and  then 
drop    his   head    in   his   hands   and   fall  into 
silence,  then    suddenly    look    up    and    say  : 
*'You  know  I  am  no  longer  in  the  Govern- 
ment, I  am   discredited,  suspected,  an  out- 
cast," or,  "They  may  say  what  they  will,  I 
know     England     was     not    plotting    war." 
Of  the  Lusitania  he  said,   "A  terrible  mis- 
take."    He  Hstened  eagerly  to  Miss  Addams 
as  she  explained  what  the   Peace   Congress 
was  urging,  but  at  the  end  he  shook  his  head  ; 
he  could  see  no  hope  anywhere.     And  so  we 
left  him  in  his  great,  sombre  library,  a  hope- 
less figure  in  deep  mourning,  stooping  as  he 
walked,    torn    continually    with    a    racking 
cough,  his  cheeks   and  temples  hollow,   and 
his  eyes   sunken.     We   felt  that   he  was   in 
very  truth  a  victim  of  the  war,  though  he  had 
never  been  in  the  trenches. 


34  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

I  can  remember  but  two  Germans  who 
spoke  to  me  with  the  sort  of  bitterness  that 
I  have  heard  from  German-Americans  over 
here,  even  though  the  war  is  so  very  close  to 
them.  I  suspect  that  that  is  the  real  reason  : 
that  the  tragedy  is  too  great  for  rancor  and 
uncharitableness.  One  woman  said  to  me, 
when  I  quoted  something  from  this  side  of 
the  water:  "I  am  far  past  all  that  now.  At 
first  I  was  bitter,  but  that  is  gone  now.  I 
have  almost  forgotten  it."  One  must  always 
remember  that  most  Germans  read  nothing 
and  hear  nothing  from  the  outside.  I 
talked  with  an  old  friend,  the  wife  of  a  pro- 
fessor under  whom  I  worked  years  ago  when 
I  was  studying  bacteriology  in  Germany. 
She  and  her  husband  are  people  with  cosmo- 
politan connections,  they  read  three  lan- 
guages besides  their  own,  and  have  always 
been  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  narrow 
provincialism,  but  since  last  July  they  have 
known  nothing  except  what  their  Govern- 
ment has  decided  that  they  shall  know.  I 
did  not  argue  with  my  friend,  but,  of  course, 
we  talked  much  together  and  after  she  had 
been  with  us  for  three  days  she  told  me  that 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  35 

she  had  never  known  before  that  there  were 
people  in  England  who  did  not  wish  to  crush 
Germany,  who  wished  for  a  just  settlement, 
and  even  some  who  were  opposed  to  the 
war. 

Then  she  said  :  "I  want  you  to  believe  this. 
We  Germans  think  that  the  Fatherland  was 
attacked  without  provocation,  that  our  war 
is  one  of  self-defence  only.  That  is  what 
we  have  been  told.  I  begin  to  think  it  may 
not  be  true,  but  you  must  believe  that  we 
were  sincere  in  our  conviction." 

In  Berhn  we  had  bread  cards  and  we  ate 
war  bread.  At  each  meal  the  waiter  asked 
for  our  cards  and  snipped  off  one  of  the  three 
coupons,  then  he  brought  us  one  and  a  half 
Brodchen,  quite  enough  for  breakfast  and 
more  than  enough  for  the  other  meals.  It 
was  good  bread  —  something  like  a  cross 
between  rye  and  white  bread.  They  told 
us  that  this  excessive  economy  was  not 
really  necessary,  for  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
Germany  gets  all  the  wheat  she  needs  across 
the  Russian  border  by  bribing  officials,  but 
that  the  German  Government  wished  to 
train   the    people    in    habits    of    saving.     It 


36  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

has  certainly  been  successful.  I  could  not 
imagine  being  wasteful  of  bread  in  Berlin. 

In  Vienna,  however,  the  bread  cards 
seemed  a  real  necessity,  for  the  allowance 
of  bread  was  very  small,  and  as  in  BerUn,  if 
one  did  not  eat  the  three  portions  on  a 
Monday,  one  could  not  save  the  coupon  and 
get  four  on  Tuesday.  The  sHce  given  us 
three  times  a  day  was  only  two  and  a  half 
inches  long,  two  inches  wide,  and  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  thick,  a  pitifully  small 
allowance  for  working  people,  to  whom  bread 
is  the  chief  article  of  diet.  It  was  a  heavy, 
unappetizing  bread,  made  of  a  mixture  of 
potato  flour,  corn-meal,  rye,  and  a  ver}^  little 
wheat.  The  Viennese  spoke  with  bitterness  of 
the  scarcity  of  wheat  in  Austria,  saying  that 
the  Hungarians  had  plenty,  but  they  were 
selling  it  to  Prussia  instead  of  to  Austria. 

In  every  country  that  we  visited,  people 
would  ask  us  with  pathetic  eagerness  if  we 
did  not  find  everything  just  the  same  as 
usual,  if  the  city  was  not  as  gay  as  ever,  life 
going  on  just  the  same,  no  sign  of  war  any- 
where. It  would  be  a  superficial  person 
who  could  say  that  even  of  Berlin,  and  no 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  37 

one  could  say  it  of  Vienna.  We  did  not 
think  that  the  people  in  Vienna  had  enough 
to  eat;  they  looked,  many  of  them,  starved, 
more  so  than  any  people  I  have  ever  seen,  — 
except,  of  course,  in  East  London,  where 
starvation  seems  endemic  in  normal  times. 
I  went  one  morning  into  the  great  Stephans- 
kirche.  No  service  was  going  on,  but  the 
church  was  full  of  people  kneeling  at  every 
altar,  one  group  of  two  hundred  gathered 
together  and  chanting  a  litany  quite  without 
any  leader,  just  by  themselves.  They  were 
tragic-looking  people,  many  of  them  the 
poorest  of  the  poor.  Among  them  were 
young  recruits  and  wounded  soldiers  —  the 
saddest  congregation  I  have  ever  seen. 
Everywhere  there  are  convalescent  soldiers 
hobbling  along  the  street,  or  wheeled  in 
chairs,  for  the  hospitals  are  scattered  all 
over  Vienna.  The  horses  were  so  thin  that 
one  could  count  their  ribs ;  we  did  not  see  one 
horse  in  decent  condition  while  we  were  there. 
To  add  to  the  general  impression  of  poverty, 
the  walls  and  windows  were  covered  with 
urgent  appeals  to  the  people  to  do  their  duty 
and  subscribe  to  the  second  war  loan. 


38  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

We  reached  Vienna  on  the  evening  of 
Whitsunday.  Italy  had  just  declared  war. 
That  evening  there  was  an  attempt  at  a 
demonstration  on  the  street  under  our 
balcony  but  it  was  not  very  warlike,  just 
a  crowd  of  young  boys  and  girls  singing  the 
Austrian  national  hymn.  The  next  day  we 
passed  a  great  troop  of  soldiers  starting  for 
the  frontier.  They  were  young  fellows,  al- 
most all  of  them,  some  mere  lads.  The}'^ 
were  very  gay  and  proud  and  confident,  and 
had  bunches  of  flowers  stuck  in  their  belts 
and  in  their  caps  and  even  in  the  muzzles  of 
their  guns.  That  is  reall}^  the  most  tragic 
thing  one  sees  —  the  young  men  setting  off 
gaily  and  confidently  for  the  war.  The 
wounded  soldiers  are  bad  enough,  but  at 
least  they  have  come  through  alive. 

In  addition  to  seeing  the  minister  of  foreign 
affairs,  and  the  prime  minister  of  Austria 
—  which  was  the  real  object  of  the  visit  to 
Vienna  of  course,  we  had  also,  as  in  Berlin, 
informal  interviews  with  pacifists  and  others 
who  were  eager  to  hear  what  the  committee 
had  done  and  hoped  to  do.  I  remember 
meeting  a  very  lovely  woman  who  had  gone  to 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  39 

the  Hague  Congress  simply  because  she 
felt  that  if  in  any  country  women  were 
getting  together  to  talk  of  peace,  she  must 
go  and  meet  them.  She  was  not  a  member 
of  any  woman's  club  and  she  had  never 
spoken  in  public  before,  but  she  made  one 
of  the  most  moving  speeches  of  the  Congress. 
When  I  met  her  in  Vienna,  she  told  me  that 
she  had,  since  the  first,  been  closely  con- 
nected with  the  American  Red  Cross  Hospital 
in  Vienna,  and  that  she  had  never  heard  a 
soldier  speak  with  hatred  or  contempt  of 
the  men  on  the  other  side.  That,  she  said, 
belonged  to  the  non-fighters  at  home. 

It  was  in  Vienna  that  we  heard  the  strong- 
est protests  against  the  censorship  of  the 
press.  The  meeting  held  there  for  the  dele- 
gation was  small  and  rather  timid,  yet  it 
was  a  comfort  to  know  that  there  was  a 
group  of  women  who  had  courage  and  broad- 
mindedness  enough  to  come  together  and 
ask  to  be  told  about  the  Peace  Congress. 
Among  our  visitors  was  an  old  friend  who  is 
connected  with  shipping  interests  in  Trieste 
and  who  was  very  indignant  over  the  en- 
trance of  Italy  into  the  war.     He    spoke  of 


40  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

the  unfounded  claims  of  the  Irredentists, 
saying  that  though  Trieste  is  predominantly 
Italian,  the  hinterland  which  it  serves  is 
Slavic,  and  the  Dalmatian  coast  has  only  a 
small  minority  of  Italians. 

There  had  been  a  question  of  our  going  to 
Budapest.  Hungary  has,  of  course,  no 
separate  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  nor  can 
she  declare  war  or  peace  independent!}^  of 
Austria.  But  Hungarians  do  not  consider 
themselves  Austrians,  and  their  present 
prime  minister  is  generally  said  to  be  the 
most  influential  man  at  present  in  the  Em- 
pire Kingdom.  Moreover,  the  suffrage  party 
in  Budapest  had  endorsed  the  Peace  Congress 
and  the  women  were  eager  to  have  a  large 
public  meeting  there.  Finally  it  was  de- 
cided that  the  two  Dutch  ladies  should  go 
on  to  Berne  to  attend  a  peace  meeting  there 
and  that  the  two  Americans  should  go  to 
Budapest. 

Our  short  time  there  was  crowded  to  over- 
flowing. From  the  outset  it  seemed  to  me 
quite  different  from  either  Berlin  or  Vienna 
and  curiously  Hke  our  own  country,  in  spite 
of  the  Magyar  which  one  heard  everywhere. 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  41 

Our  first  breakfast  seemed  like  home,  be- 
cause there  was  plenty  of  bread  and  no  bother 
about  bread  cards  and  before  it  was  over  a 
group  of  journalists  had  arrived  who  were 
not  only  as  eager  for  news  as  American 
journalists  would  be,  but  apparently  as  in- 
dependent in  their  use  of  it.  We  were 
quickl}^  taken  in  charge  by  a  group  of  very 
able  women  who  arranged  for  an  interview 
with  the  prime  minister  and  for  a  large  public 
meeting.  Miss  Addams'  speech  was  repeated 
in  Magyar  but  I  think  fully  two-thirds  of  the 
audience  understood  English  and  were  most 
responsive  and  sympathetic.  When  it  was 
over,  there  was  a  dinner  for  about  sixty  at 
the  Ritz  Hotel  and  it  seemed  characteristic 
of  the  spirit  of  the  country  that  a  dignitary 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  a  pacifist 
and  also  an  outspoken  feminist,  should  pre- 
side. There  were  members  of  parliament 
and  Government  officials  present,  but  the 
discussion  at  the  table  was  apparently  as 
free  and  unconstrained  as  it  would  be  in 
America.  The  man  who  sat  on  my  left  was 
a  privy  councillor,  who  told  me  frankly  that 
he  was  a  pacifist,  that  he   had   no  use  for 


42  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

Prussia,  that  he  considered  that  Hungary 
had  no  quarrel  with  Servia,  certainly  no 
desire  to  hurt  Belgium,  and  that  she  was 
being  forced  to  fight  Prussia's  war.  The 
woman  on  my  right  told  me  that  she  and 
her  husband  have  put  up  convalescent  homes 
for  some  twelve  hundred  soldiers  on  their 
estate;  but  she  herself  stays  in  Budapest"" 
and  is  chief  cook,  as  she  called  it,  for  a 
hospital  with  five  hundred  men.  She  has 
charge  of  all  the  supplies  and  must  plan  the 
dietary  so  that  she  comes  within  the  allow- 
ance made  by  the  Government,  yet  she 
must  give  her  soldiers  enough  nourishing 
food.  If  there  is  a  deficit,  it  comes  out  of 
her  pocket. 

She  told  me  that  the  English  were  generally 
liked  in  Hungary  and  that  the  people  of 
Budapest  are  very  proud  of  the  fact  that 
when  the  war  broke  out  they  had  over  five 
hundred  English  people  in  the  city,  and  they 
have  interned  only  about  a  dozen ;  the  rest 
are  all  at  liberty.  We  found  also  a  very 
kindly  feeling  toward  the  Russians  with 
whom,  of  course,  the  Hungarians  have  come 
in  especially  close  contact.     They  say  that 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  43 

fighting  them  is  like  fighting  children,  for 
the  Russian  peasant  is  averse  to  war  and 
often  has  to  be  absolutely  forced  into  it. 

They  told  us  the  story  of  two  Hungarians 
who  had  captured  ten  Russians,  and  one  of 
the  latter  said,  "Wait  a  minute  and  I  will 
bring  you  some  more."  They  let  him  go  on 
the  chance,  thinking  that  an3^way  they  had 
nine  prisoners  left,  and  presently  he  re- 
turned bringing  with  him  thirty  other  Rus- 
sians who  willingly  laid  down  their  arms. 
They  said,  "We  never  wished  to  fight  but 
now  it  is  spring  it  is  the  season  to  till  the 
soil;  we  will  not  fight  any  more;  we  wish 
to  till  the  soil  as  we  always  do."  So  they 
have  been  put  to  work  in  the  fields  and  are 
quite  content. 

In  Budapest  I  was  much  impressed  by  my 
first  experience  of  an  official  palace  with 
many  antechambers  and  men  who,  I  felt 
sure,  must  be  what  historical  novels  call 
"lackeys."  The  prime  minister  looks  curi- 
ously like  pictures  of  General  Grant,  only 
that  he  is  very  tall  and  broad-shouldered. 
Like  many  Hungarians,  he  is  a  Presbyterian. 
He  impresses  one  as  a  rather  sombre,  stern 


44  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

man  with  great  resolution,  but  not  as  the 
fire-eater,  the  fierce  war-lord,  that  the 
Austrians  had  described  to  us;  certainly  to 
us  he  said  nothing  of  the  glories  or  gains  of 
war,  only  of  its  senseless  horrors. 

On  our  journey  from  Berne  to  Rome  we 
stopped  at  Milan  and  at  once  were  brought 
face  to  face  with  Italy  in  war  paint,  for  the 
streets  were  decked  with  the  flags  of  the 
five  allied  and  placarded  with  posters  read- 
ing "  Fogliamo  Salandra."  In  the  great 
arcade  some  of  the  shops  had  been  wrecked 
by  the  mob.  They  told  us  that  the  city  was 
at  the  time  under  martial  law.  The  Duomo 
had  been  protected  against  possible  Zeppelin 
raids  by  covering  all  the  gilded  portions  of 
the  roof  with  scaffolding  and  sandbags.  It 
would  never  be  difficult  in  Milan  to  stir  up 
old  animosity  against  the  Austrians,  but 
among  the  devices  used  to  extend  this  to  the 
Germans  we  saw  conspicuousl}''  displayed  in 
the  shop  windows  large  photographs  of  a 
Belgian  child  with  one  hand  cut  off.  This 
indubitable  evidence  of  German  atrocity  was 
held  second  only  to  the  fiery  speeches  of 
D'Annuncio  as  an  aid  in  securing  the  proper 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  45 

war  spirit  among  the  Italians.  It  was  evi- 
dent from  the  photograph  itself  that  the 
little  hand  had  been  carefully  amputated, 
but  such  trifling  evidence  was  of  course  not 
considered  —  and  the  old  war  story  of 
mutilated  children,  utilized  for  hundreds  of 
years  in  various  countries,  once  more  did 
its  work. 

Rome  was  at  its  loveHest,  for  the  rains  had 
kept  a  vivid  spring  green  everywhere,  but 
it  was  deserted  as  far  as  foreigners  were 
concerned.  Our  hotel  could  serve  us  only 
our  breakfast  coffee  and  rolls,  for  cooks  and 
waiters  had  been  mobilized.  Outwardly, 
the  city  was  very  gay.  Constitution  Day 
was  celebrated  while  we  were  there,  and  the 
streets  were  filled  with  enormous  crowds  of 
holiday  people  and  of  soldiers  in  fresh 
uniforms,  and  flags  were  flying  everywhere. 
The  feeling  seemed  to  be  that  the  war  could 
not  possibly  last  long ;  now  that  Italy  was 
in,  it  would  soon  be  decided.  Coming  as  we 
had  from  the  sight  of  what  nine  months  of 
war  means  to  even  so  wonderfully  organized 
a  country  as  Germany,  it  filled  us  with  dread 
to  think  what   Rome  would  be  like  after  a 


46  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

few  months  were  over  and  she  too  had  her 
cripples  and  her  blinded  men  and  widows  and 
orphans  and  starving  refugees. 

It  seemed  little  more  than  a  formality  to 
present  the  resolutions  of  the  Peace  Congress 
to  ministers  who  had  just  triumphantly  led 
Italy  into  war,  but  of  course  this  was  done. 
Afterwards  we  presented  our  letter  from  the 
Primate  of  Hungary  to  Cardinal  Gasparri, 
secretary  of  state  to  the  Pope,  and  through 
him  secured  an  audience  with  the  Pope 
himself.  It  was  a  real  audience,  for  we  sat 
for  half  an  hour  and  discussed  with  him  the 
war  and  the  possibiHty  of  some  action  on  the 
part  of  neutral  nations  to  initiate  negoti- 
ations between  the  warring  countries.  He 
was  in  favor  of  this,  and  said  more  than  once 
that  it  was  for  the  United  States,  the  greatest 
of  neutral  countries,  to  make  a  move  in  which 
he  would  gladly  cooperate  if  it  seemed 
best. 

We  had  had  warning  about  the  opposition 
the  delegation  would  meet  with  in  all  of 
these  countries,  but  especially  had  we  been 
warned  about  France.  It  was  true  that 
though  we  found  pacifists  even  in  Paris,  still 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  47 

the  feeling  there  was  on  the  whole  more 
grimly  determined,  more  immovable,  than 
anywhere  else.  One  can  understand  why 
this  is  so.  France  has  been  invaded,  the 
richest  part  of  her  country  is  still  in  the  hands 
of  the  conqueror,  and  her  feeling  is  one  of 
bitter  resentment.  It  seemed  to  me  also 
that  we  in  America  had  never  realized  how 
universal  has  been  the  dread  of  just  this  dis- 
aster in  the  French  mind.  Over  and  over 
again  I  heard  people  say:  "It  does  not 
matter  what  we  have  to  endure  if  only  we 
can  at  last  free  France  from  the  nightmare 
of  a  German  invasion." 

No  French  woman  had  come  to  the  Con- 
gress at  The  Hague,  and  a  group  of  leading 
women  had  sent  a  protest  against  the  hold- 
ing of  such  a  Congress.  We  had  rather 
dreaded  meeting  in  Paris  even  those  women 
whom  we  knew,  yet  when  we  did  meet  a  group 
of  them,  the  delegation  was  able  to  make 
them  see  how  the  women  at  the  Congress  had 
felt  and  they  on  their  side  made  us  see  that 
their  bitterness  was  understandable,  even 
if  we  could  not  share  it.  The  war  is  terribly 
close  to  these  women.     Every  one  I  met  that 


48  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

afternoon  had  at  least  one  near  and  dear 
relative  in  danger  at  the  front  or  already  lost. 
They  were  all  engaged  in  relief  work  of  some 
kind,  most  of  them  spending  their  whole 
day  at  it,  for  that  is  the  only  thing  that  makes 
life  bearable. 

There  is  however  a  little  band  of  pacifist 
women,  most  of  them  young,  which  has 
formed  recently  and  is  increasing  all  the 
time.  There  are  also  men  in  France  who  are 
willing  to  speak  very  frankly  against  pro- 
longing the  war  to  the  bitter  end.  One  of 
the  members  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
introduced  us  to  other  like-minded  members 
of  the  chamber,  a  goodly  company.  The 
news  of  Mr.  Bryan's  resignation  had  just 
come,  and  since  the  second  note  to  Germany 
had  not  yet  been  published,  every  one  was 
feeling  a  bit  apprehensive  as  to  America's 
probable  course  of  action.  The  deputies 
who  talked  to  us  all  hoped  that  we  would 
keep  out  of  the  war,  for  they  said  that  the 
world  needed  a  great  neutral  nation,  not 
only  to  take  charge  of  the  embassies  of  the 
warring  countries,  to  look  after  the  welfare 
of  prisoners  of  war,  and  to  feed  Belgium,  but 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  49 

especially  to  help  in  the  final  settlement  of  the 
terms  of  peace. 

In  Paris,  I  had  the  impression  even  more 
strongly  than  elsewhere  that  the  most  ex- 
travagantly bitter  statements  are  made,  not 
by  the  Europeans  themselves,  but  by  the 
American  sojourners  in  Europe.  There  is 
something  very  distasteful  in  this.  It  seems 
to  me  that  no  one  has  a  right  to  urge  extreme 
sacrifices  unless  he  is  also  sacrificing  himself, 
that  nobody  should  talk  of  war  to  the  bitter 
end  who  is  not  himself  fighting.  I  remember 
how  irritated  I  was  by  an  American  author, 
who  lounged  comfortably  in  the  court  of  the 
hotel,  smoking  innumerable  cigarettes,  and 
nobly  declaring  his  readiness  to  sacrifice  the 
last  Frenchmen  in  the  trenches  before  he 
would  yield  an  inch  to  Germany !  Nor  can 
I  forget  an  American  nurse  who  displa3^ed 
with  pride  a  ghoulish  collection  she  had  made 
of  German  and  Austrian  helmets,  knapsacks, 
fragments  of  uniforms,  bayonet  ends,  tro- 
phies of  French  battlefields,  which  she  had 
bought  from  returned  soldiers. 

Of  the  ministers  whom  the  delegation  inter- 
viewed in  Paris,  the  minister  of  foreign  afi^airs, 

E 


50  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

a  life-long  militarist,  was  less  approachable 
than  most  of  the  ministers  whom  the  dele- 
gations met,  although  the  president  of  the 
Conseil  who  performs  the  offices  of  a  prime 
minister  was  much  more  moderate  than  he. 

The  informal  interviews  were  sometimes 
depressing,  sometimes  quite  inspiring.  Per-^ 
haps  the  most  depressing  were  those  with 
former  pacifists,  who  in  bitter  disillusion- 
ment over  the  failure  of  their  hopes  and  in 
mortification  over  the  ridicule  they  had 
received,  had  become  almost  more  militaristic 
than  the  military. 

Poor  little  Belgium  has  had  to  accept  the 
hospitality  of  France  and  her  Government  is 
housed  in  hotels  and  villas  on  the  seashore 
near  Havre.  The  Belgian  minister  for  foreign 
affairs  was  a  sad,  gentle  person,  who  took  the 
mission  of  the  delegation  very  seriously  and 
spoke  with  real  feeling  of  Belgium's  longing 
for  peace,  although,  as  he  said,  she  was  in 
the  hands  of  her  allies  and  must  leave  such 
things  to  them. 

With  this  visit  the  work  of  the  delegation 
was  over  until  the  resolutions  could  be 
presented  to  Washington.     As,  however,  we 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  51 

were  to  sail  from  Liverpool,  we  had  a  week  to 
spend  in  London,  and  put  it  to  very  good 
use.  London  seemed  to  me  more  changed  by 
the  war  than  any  city  except  Vienna,  partly 
because  the  sight  of  soldiers  in  London  is 
unusual,  and  because  what  seemed  natural  in 
Berlin  was  unnatural  there.  Then,  too,  there 
are  posters  covering  every  available  space 
and  appeahng  to  all  possible  motives  which 
might  induce  men  to  join  the  army. 

It  was  a  relief  to  reach  a  country  where 
speech  is  free  and  where  critics  of  the  Gov- 
ernment can  make  themselves  heard  in 
Hyde  Park,  or  in  pamphlets  such  as  those 
issued  by  the  Union  for  Democratic  Control. 
Our  days  were  filled  with  meetings,  formal 
and  informal,  interviews  arranged  by  the 
very  capable  British  committee.  We  met  in 
England  a  large  number  of  men  and  women 
who  recognized  England's  responsibihty  in 
the  remoter  causes  of  the  war  and  who  are 
determined  to  do  their  utmost  to  bring  about 
a  permanent  peace  on  the  basis  of  justice 
and  human  needs  rather  than  on  that  of 
political  ambitions.  To  many  of  these  even 
the  invasion  of  Belgium   did   not  justify   a 


52  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

return  to  the  outworn  ways  of  violence. 
Some  of  these,  as  one  would  expect,  were 
Quakers  who  seemed  to  us  to  be  playing  a 
very  fine  part  just  now  in  England.  They 
have  remained  surprisingly  faithful  to  their 
principles  and  while  serving  their  country  in 
ways  which  expose  them  to  great  danger,  they^ 
will  do  only  those  things  that  tend  to  pre- 
serve life  not  to  destroy  it.  We  dined  with 
a  Quaker  family  the  three  children  of  which 
had  gone  to  the  war.  The  eldest  son  is 
doing  ambulance  work  in  Flanders,  carry- 
ing the  wounded  from  the  battlefield  to  the 
base  hospital,  than  which  no  work  is  more 
perilous  ;  the  second  son  is  engaged  in  sweep- 
ing mines  in  the  North  Sea;  and  his  sister 
nurses  in  a  hospital  in  Dunkirk,  which  has 
repeatedly  been  shelled. 

Oxford  was  very  sad,  but  we  were  told 
that  during  term  time  the  contrast  with  the 
Oxford  one  used  to  know  was  even  greater. 
As  we  walked  through  the  colleges,  our  hosts 
would  point  out  the  new  kind  of  honor  list 
hanging  on  the  wall  of  chapel  or  cloister,  the 
list  of  students  who  have  already  fallen  in 
the  war,  and  they  would  tell  us  of  this  one 


AT  THE  WAR  CAPITALS  53 

or  that,  of  his  great  promise  or  his  charming 
qualities,  so  that  the  names  took  on  a  reality 
even  to  us.  As  I  remember  it,  St.  John's  has 
been  converted  into  a  school  for  refugee  Bel- 
gian boys,  Balliol  was  filled  with  the  officers 
of  the  training  camps,  other  colleges  with 
young  recruits.  Then  there  are  the  big  hos- 
pitals under  Sir  William  Osier,  one  of  them 
devoted  entirely  to  men  who  have  breathed 
the  poisonous  gases  and  yet  survived. 

In  England,  more  than  in  any  country,  we 
heard  of  doubts  and  questionings  on  the 
part  of  the  young  men,  especially  those  from 
the  universities,  who  cannot  reconcile  the 
thought  of  killing  other  men  with  what  they 
have  always  held  as  their  ideal  of  conduct, 
and  yet  who  cannot  refuse  to  respond  to 
their  country's  call. 

It  is  hard  to  sum  up  general  impressions 
from  this  journey,  there  are  so  many  of  them. 
One,  however,  I  should  like  to  speak  of,  for 
it  is  borne  in  upon  me  so  strongly  now  that 
I  am  at  home  again.  That  is,  that  there  is 
in  the  countries  actually  at  war  no  such  uni- 
versal desire  to  fight  on  to  the  bitter  end  as 
we  suppose  over  here.     We  judge  largely  by 


54  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

the  newspapers  which  come  to  us  from  that 
side  and  which  are  of  course  strictly  censored. 

I  find  that  people  here  are  often  indignant, 
if  not  actually  resentful,  at  the  mere  sugges- 
tion that  negotiations  be  substituted  for  force 
at  the  earhest  possible  moment.  They  seem 
to  be  much  impressed  with  the  things  that 
must  be  gained  by  war  before  war  can  be 
allowed  to  stop,  but  I  believe  this  means 
that  they  do  not  reahze  what  war  has  already 
cost  the  countries  engaged  in  it  and  what 
more  it  will  cost  if  it  is  to  continue.  The 
men  at  the  head  of  affairs  over  there  are  not 
bUnd  and  they  do  realize  it,  and  so  do  many 
thinking  people  in  every  country,  and  so 
would  Americans  if  the}^  could  see  for  them- 
selves and  were  not  obliged  to  form  their 
judgment  simply  on  what  the  warring 
Governments  allow  the  newspapers  to"  say. 
Those  nations  are  committing  race  suicide 
and  impoverishing  their  children  and  grand- 
children, and  they  know  it,  yet  they  seem 
to  be  unable  to  find  any  way  to  end  it. 

They  do  not  need  us  to  encourage  them  to 
keep  on,  but  it  may  be  that  they  need  us  to 
help  them  to  find  a  way  out. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR 

Jane  Addams 

(a)  By  Certain  Young  Men 
{b)  By  Groups  of  Civilians 

The  details  of  our  visits  to  the  various  war 
capitals  are  given  in  the  official  report  of 
the  Congress  and  for  obvious  reasons  are 
omitted  from  this  narrative  account.  It 
would  also  be  most  unwise  to  repeat  our  ex- 
periences with  any  one  Government,  but 
certain  impressions  received  in  all  of  the 
capitals  so  unmistakably  have  to  do  with 
war  as  an  institution  and  with  its  reactions 
on  the  civil  population  that  no  confidence 
can  be  violated  in  stating  them  although 
it  is  most  difficult  to  formulate  our  ex- 
perience, brought  face  to  face  as  we  were  with 
so  much  genuine  emotion  and  high  patriotism 
as  is  exhibited  in  the  warring  nations  of 
Europe  at  the  present  moment.     We  became 

S5 


56  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

very  much  afraid  of  generalizing;  the  situa- 
tion is  so  complicated  and  so  many  wild 
statements  are  made  in  regard  to  it  that  it  is 
farthest  from  our  purpose  to  add  to  this 
already  overwhelming  confusion,  or  to  *'let 
loose"  any  more  emotion  upon  the  world. 
We  came  to  feel  that  what  is  needed  above  all 
else  is  some  human  interpretation  of  this 
overevolved  and  much-talked-of  situation 
in  which  so  much  of  the  world  finds  itself  in 
dire  confusion  and  bloodshed.  In  regard 
to  such  generahzations  as  we  do  venture  to 
make,  it  is  necessary  to  guard  against  one  or 
two  possible  misapprehensions.  The  dele- 
gations from  the  Congress  at  The  Hague 
visited  the  ministry  of  each  nation,  who  of 
course  represent  the  civil  aspect  of  govern- 
ment as  it  is  carried  on  year  after  year 
when  there  is  no  war.  In  every  country, 
we  were  received  by  a  committee  of  women 
connected  officially  with  the  Congress  at 
The  Hague,  who  had  arranged  that  we 
should  speak  in  pubhc  to  larger  or  smaller 
audiences,  and  in  every  country  we  naturally 
met  the  friends  of  these  women,  the  mothers 
of  men  who  were  at  the  front,  nurses  in  the 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  57 

hospitals,  and  man}^  others.  We  saw  So- 
cialists, aghast  at  the  violence  resulting  to 
their  international  views  from  the  war  but 
already  beginning  to  recover  from  the  first 
impact;  groups  of  Christians  or  Jews  whose 
conceptions  of  religious  solidarity  had  been 
outraged.  We  came  in  touch  with  new 
types  of  pacifist  organizations,  thrown  up 
by  the  war,  taking  the  place  of  the  old  paci- 
fists, who  with  few  exceptions  were  sub- 
merged by  the  flood-tide  of  militarism. 

I  came  to  believe  that  there  must  be  many 
more  of  the  same  type  in  every  country, 
quite  as  eager  for  the  retention  and  develop- 
ment of  their  national  ideals  and  quite  as 
patriotic  as  the  militarists,  but  believing 
with  all  their  hearts  that  mihtarism  cannot 
establish  those  causes  which  are  most  dear 
to  them,  that  human  nature  has  been  forced 
into  unnatural  channels  by  the  war  and  that 
their  children  are  being  sacrificed  for  a  pur- 
pose which  can  never  be  obtained  through 
warfare.  I  do  not  wish  to  imply  that  in  any 
country  we  found  open  division  between 
the  people.  On  the  contrary  we  found 
that  the  war  had  united  men,  women,  and 


58  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

children  in  a  common  cause  and  had  bound 
them  together  in  an  overwhelming  national 
consciousness. 

Our  first  striking  experience  was  to  find  that 
the  same  causes  and  reasons  for  the  war  were 
heard  everywhere.  Each  belligerent  nation 
solemnly  assured  us  that  it  was  fighting  under 
the  impulse  of  self-defence,  to  preserve  its" 
traditions  and  ideals  from  those  who  would 
come  in  to  disturb  and  destroy  them.  And 
in  every  capital  we  heard  the  identical 
phrases  describing  the  good  qualities  of  the 
citizens  within  the  country,  and  very  much 
the  same  derogatory  phrases  in  regard  to 
the  enemy  whom  they  were  fighting.  On 
one  point  only  they  always  differed  and  that 
was  in  regard  to  the  responsibihty  for  the 
war. 

We  alwaj^s  found  some  officials  ready  to 
indict  the  entire  situation.  I  have  never 
heard  war  indicted  with  more  earnestness 
than  by  responsible  men  in  the  beUigerent 
nations.  Of  course  they  all  deprecated  the 
loss  of  the  youth  upon  whom  depended  the 
progress  of  the  nation  and  the  tremendous 
debts  fastened  upon  the  backs  of  the  humble 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  59 

people.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were  all 
of  the  opinion  that  this  war  was  inevitable, 
and  in  the  end  would  make  for  progress. 

The  warring  nations  presented  another 
point  of  similarity;  from  many  people 
whom  we  met  in  each  of  them  we  were 
forced  to  infer  that  a  certain  type  of  young 
man  did  not  want  the  war  and  considered 
the  older  men  responsible  for  it,  that  enthu- 
siasm for  the  war  was  not  as  universal 
among  the  young  men  who  were  doing  the 
fighting  as  it  was  among  the  elderly  men 
established  in  the  high  places  of  church  and 
state ;  that  it  was  the  older  men  who  had 
convinced  themselves  that  this  was  a  right- 
eous war  which  must  be  fought  to  a  finish ; 
that  there  were  to  be  found  in  each  nation 
young  men  in  the  trenches  convinced  that 
war  was  not  a  legitimate  method  of  settling 
international  difficulties. 

Doubtless  this  is  but  a  partial  view.  I 
am  quite  sure  that  the  large  majority  of 
young  men  in  the  trenches  are  confident  that 
they  are  performing  the  highest  possible 
duty;  that  the  spirit  of  righteousness  is  in 
the  hearts  of  most  of  them,  but  I   am  also 


6o  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

convinced  that  there  are  to  be  found  these 
other  men  who  are  doing  violence  to  the 
highest  teachings  which  they  know. 

It  seemed  to  me  at  moments  as  if  the  differ- 
ence between  the  older  generation  and  the 
new  is  something  we  apprehend  dimly  in 
each  country ;  that  the  older  men  believed 
more  in  abstractions,  that  certain  theologi- 
cal or  nationalistic  words,  patriotic  phrases 
included,  meant  more  to  them  than  they  did 
to  young  men  who  had  come  to  take  life  as 
it  was  revealed  through  experience,  who  were 
more  pragmatic  in  their  philosophy,  who 
were  more  empirical  in  their  point  of 
view. 

Certain  young  men  in  England  contended 
that  the  older  men,  surviving  as  a  product  of 
the  Victorian  age,  responded  to  slogans  which 
had  not  the  same  meaning  in  the  ears  of  this 
generation,  that  an  intense  narrow  patriotism 
was  one  of  them ;  that  the  older  men  were 
nearer  to  the  type  that  had  been  ready  to 
fight  for  religious  abstraction,  nearer  to  the 
age  when  men  lined  up  in  opposing  forces 
to  fight  out  a  difference  in  dogma  as  to  the 
composition    of   the   Trinity ;    and  that  the 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  6i 

governmentalists  have  reared  new  abstrac- 
tions. It  is  this  feeling  that  causes  the  pro- 
test among  the  young  men,  who  are  still 
asking  new  experiences,  new  contacts  with 
other  nations,  new  reactions  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  other  hemispheres.  These  young 
men  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  were  just 
beginning  to  make  themselves  felt,  they 
were  responding  to  the  promptings  toward 
a  new  order  which  might  in  the  end  have 
done  away  with  standing  armies  and  camps. 
At  the  present  moment  they  feel  themselves 
violently  thrown  back  and  bidden  play  a 
role  in  a  drama  of  Hfe  which  they  were  out- 
growing. Such  young  men  have  no  notion 
of  shirking  their  duty,  of  not  standing  up  to 
the  war  at  their  country's  demand,  but  they 
go  into  the  trenches  with  a  divided  mind  which 
is  tragic.  Tragedy  after  all  is  not  a  conflict 
between  good  and  evil ;  tragedy  from  the 
time  of  iEschylus  has  been  the  conflict  be- 
tween one  good  and  another,  between  two 
kinds  of  good,  so  that  the  mind  of  the  victim 
is  torn  as  to  which  he  ought  to  follow,  which 
should  possess  his  entire  allegiance.  That 
sort  of  tragedy,  I  am  sure,  is  in  the  minds 


62  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

of  certain  young  men  who  are  fighting  upon 
every  side  of  the  great  conflict. 

Even  in  their  conception  of  internation- 
alism, the  two  groups  of  young  men  and 
old  men  differed  widely.  The  Victorian 
group,  for  instance,  in  their  moral  roman- 
ticism, fostered  a  sentiment  for  a  far-off 
"Federation  of  the  World,"  and  believed 
that  the  world  would  be  federated  when 
wise  men  from  many  nations  met  together 
and  accomplished  it.  The  young  men  do 
not  talk  much  about  internationalism,  but 
they  live  in  a  w^orld  where  common 
experience  has  in  fact  become  largely  in- 
ternationalized. A  young  Frenchman,  em- 
ployed in  the  Parisian  office  of  a  large  busi- 
ness enterprise,  told  me  that  the  day  war 
was  declared  he  went  out  of  the  door  with 
an  Englishman  and  a  German  with  whom  he 
had  been  associated  for  four  years.  The 
three  men  shook  hands  in  front  of  the  locked 
door  and  each  man  went  to  fight  for  his 
country,  but  the  two  said  to  the  third  :  "We 
hope  never  to  be  brought  up  against  you  in 
the  line  of  battle."  They  had  no  theory 
about  loving  each  other,  but  in  point  of  fact 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  63 

a  genuine  friendship  had  transcended  na- 
tional bounds.  The  men  of  the  older  genera- 
tion have  not  shared  so  largely  in  such  ex- 
periences which  the  new  internationalism 
implies,  nor  in  their  devotion  to  abstract 
ideas  are  they  so  open  to  modification  through 
experience. 

The  young  men  therefore,  when  bidden  to 
go  to  war  on  a  purely  national  issue,  have  a 
tendency  to  question  whether  that  which 
they  are  doing  is  useful  and  justifiable  and 
are  inclined  to  more  or  less  test  it  out.  Such 
testing  is  indeed  in  line  with  their  philos- 
ophy, for  while  empirically  grounded  truths 
do  not  inspire  such  violent  loyalty  as  a  priori 
truths,  they  "are  more  discussable  and  have 
a  human  and  social  quality,"  we  are  told. 

This  notion  that  the  old  gulf  between 
fathers  and  sons  is  once  more  yawning  wide 
in  Europe  may  be  a  superficial  one,  but  I 
am  at  least  recording  the  impression  we 
received  in  one  country  after  the  other. 
Doubtless  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the 
young  men  even  more  enthusiastically  than 
the  old  were  caught  up  into  that  conscious- 
ness of  a  strong  and   united    nation  which 


64  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

has  carried  its  citizens  to  heights  of  self- 
sacrifice  which  human  nature  seldom  attains, 
and  they  all  responded  to  that  primitive 
ethic  founded  upon  obedience  to  group  senti- 
ment and  the  need  of  race  safety  which  so 
completely  asserted  its  sway  over  that  more 
highly  developed  ethic  supposed  to  be  the- 
possession  of  the  civilized  world.  But  just 
as  there  is  a  gradual  return  on  the  part  of 
the  Socialists,  for  instance,  to  those  doctrines 
of  internationalism  and  peace  which  they 
have  preached  for  half  a  century,  so  thou- 
sands of  other  citizens  are  going  back  to  the 
moral  positions  they  held  before  the  war. 
The  young  are  perhaps  the  most  eager  to 
make  clear  their  changing  position ;  they 
continue  to  salute  the  flag,  but  recognize  it 
as  a  symbol  and  reaUze  that  it  has  the  danger 
of  all  abstractions,  that  a  wrong  content 
may  be  substituted  for  the  right  one,  and 
that  men  in  a  nation,  an  army,  a  crowd  may 
do  things  horrible  as  well  as  heroic  that 
they  could  never  do  alone. 

The  older  men  have  no  conception  of  the 
extent  to  which  the  purely  nationahstic 
appeal    has    been    weakened.     They    them- 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  65 

selves  say  that  this  war  with  its  sturdy 
nationaUstic  ideals  and  ambitions  shows 
what  nonsense  all  the  talk  of  internationaUsm 
has  been  and  how  absurd  were  the  Hague 
Conferences,  although  in  the  very  same 
speech  I  heard  an  Englishman  say  also  that 
Great  Britain  went  into  war  to  protest  against 
the  illegal  and  unjustifiable  invasion  of 
Belgium  because  solemn  international  treaties 
had  been  broken,  admitting  that  inter- 
national obligations  are  so  genuine  that  blood 
must  be  spilled  to  preserve  them. 

The  young  men  on  the  contrary  speak 
with  no  uncertain  sound.  We  met  one 
young  German  who  said:  "I  happen  to 
live  near  the  line  of  Schleswig-Holstein.  I 
am  told  the  men  of  Schleswig-Holstein  are 
my  brothers,  but  my  grandfather  before  me 
fought  them.  I  do  not  know  whether  they 
are  my  brothers  or  my  grandfather's  enemies ; 
I  only  know  I  have  no  feeling  for  them 
different  from  that  I  have  for  men  living 
farther  north  in  Denmark  itself.  The  truth 
is  that  neither  to  my  grandfather  nor  to  me 
do  the  people  of  Schleswig-Holstein  mean 
anything;    that  he  hated  them    and  that  I 


66  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

love  them  are  both  fictions,  invented  and 
fostered  for  their  own  purposes  by  the  people 
who  have  an  interest  in  war."  The  man  who 
said  this  was  a  fine  young  fellow  who  had 
been  wounded  and  sent  home  to  be  cured ; 
in  those  solemn  days  he  was  trying  to  think 
the  thing  out  and  he  asked  himself  what 
it  was  he  was  doing  with  this  life  of  his. 
What  impresses  one  in  regard  to  these 
young  men  is  that  it  is  so  desperately  irrev- 
ocable, that  it  is  their  very  lives  which  are 
demanded.  The  older  men  who  have  had 
honor  and  fulness  of  hfe  and  have  been  put 
into  high  places  in  the  state,  who  are  they 
to  deprive  even  one  of  these  young  men  of 
that  which  should  lie  before  him  .? 

It  is  obviously  quite  impossible  to  know  how 
many  young  men  there  are  in  a  similar  state 
of  mind,  how  man}^  more  mothers  like  the  one 
who  said  to  us  :  "It  was  hard  to  see  my  boy  go 
because  he  did  not  believe  in  war;  he  did  not 
belong  to  a  generation  that  believes  in  war." 

One  of  the  leading  men  of  Europe  is 
authority  for  the  statement:  "If  this  war 
could  have  been  postponed  for  ten  years,  — 
perhaps,"  he  said,  "I  will  be  safe  and  say, 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  67 

twenty  years,  —  war  would  have  been  im- 
possible in  Europe,  because  of  the  tremen- 
dous revolt  against  it  in  the  schools  and  the 
universities." 

Certainly  we  found  such  revolt  in  Eng- 
land, to  quote  from  a  letter  published  in  the 
Cam-Magazine  at  Cambridge  University  and 
written  by  a  young  man  who  had  gone  to 
the  front,  joining  that  large  number  of  stu- 
dents who  have  almost  depleted  the  univer- 
sities. 

"The  greatest  trial  that  this  war  has  brought  is 
that  it  has  released  the  old  men  from  all  restraining 
influences,  and  has  let  them  loose  upon  the  world. 
The  city  editors,  the  retired  majors,  the  amazons,  and 
last,  but  I  fear,  not  least,  the  venerable  archdeacons, 
have  never  been  so  free  from  contradiction.  Just  when 
the  younger  generation  was  beginning  to  take  its  share 
in  the  affairs  of  the  world,  and  was  hoping  to  counteract 
the  Victorian  influences  of  the  older  generation,  this 
war  has  come  to  silence  us,  —  permanently  or  tempo- 
rarily as  the  case  may  be.  Meanwhile,  the  old  men  are 
having  field  days  on  their  own.  In  our  name,  and  for 
our  sakes,  as  they  pathetically  imagine,  they  are  doing 
their  very  utmost,  it  would  seem,  to  perpetuate,  by 
their  appeals  to  hate,  intolerance,  and  revenge,  those 
very  follies  which  have  produced  the  present  conflagra- 
tion." 


68  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

A  professor  in  an  English  university  showed 
us  a  letter  written  in  a  military  hospital  by 
one  of  his  students,  in  which  the  young  man 
congratulated  himself  upon  the  loss  of  a 
leg  because  it  enabled  him  to  resume  reason- 
able living  with  an  undivided  mind.  He  had 
responded  to  his  country's  call  in  deference 
to  the  opinion  of  older  men.  He  would  now 
return  to  the  ideas  of  his  own  generation. 

A  letter  from  one  of  those  young  ardent 
spirits  fighting  in  the  opposing  trenches 
written  to  his  fiancee   runs   as   follows : 

"  I  rouse  my  indignation  and  awaken  all  my  powers 
to  put  my  thoughts  in  order,  that,  should  I  return  from 
this  war,  I  might  fling  them  once  for  all  in  the  faces  of 
men  who  deceive  themselves  into  finding  a  justification 
for  all  this  murdering;  and  who  further  believe  — 
Heaven  knows  why  —  that  there  will  be  great  moral 
effects  from  this  wholesale  slaughter.  As  if  civilized 
men  were  ever  justified  for  any  principle  whatever,  to 
suddenly  fall  into  the  madness  of  letting  loose  on  one 
another  with  instruments  of  murder." 

It  gradually  became  clear  to  us  that 
whether  it  is  easily  recognized  or  not,  there 
has  grown  up  a  generation  in  Europe,  as 
there  has  doubtless  grown  up  a  generation 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  69 

in  America,  who  have  revolted  against  war. 
It  is  a  god  they  know  not  of,  whom  they 
are  not  willing  to  serve;  because  all  of  their 
sensibilities  and  their  training  upon  which 
their  highest  ideals  depend,  revolt  against 
it. 

We  met  a  young  man  in  Switzerland  who 
had  been  in  the  trenches  for  three  months 
and  had  been  wounded  there.  He  did 
not  know  that  he  had  developed  tuberculosis 
but  he  thought  he  was  being  cured,  and  he 
was  speaking  his  mind  before  he  went  back 
to  the  trenches.  He  was,  I  suppose,  what 
one  would  call  a  fine  young  man,  but  not  an 
exceptional  one.  He  had  been  in  business 
with  his  father  and  had  travelled  in  South 
Africa,  in  France,  England,  and  Holland. 
He  had  come  to  know  men  as  Menschy  that 
gute  Menschen  were  to  be  found  in  every 
land.  And  now  here  he  was,  at  twenty- 
eight,  facing  death  because  he  was  quite 
sure  when  he  went  back  to  the  trenches  that 
death  awaited  him.  He  said  that  never 
during  that  three  months  and  a  half  had  he 
once  shot  his  gun  in  a  way  that  could  possibly 
hit   another  man  and  nothing  in  the  world 


70  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

could  make  him  kill  another  man.  He 
could  be  ordered  into  the  trenches  and  "to  go 
through  the  motions,"  but  the  final  act  was 
in  his  own  hands  and  with  his  own  con- 
science. And  he  said  :  ''My  brother  is  an 
officer."  He  gave  the  name  and  rank  of 
his  brother,  for  he  was  quite  too  near  the 
issues  of  life  and  death  for  any  shifting  and 
concealing.  "He  never  shoots  in  a  way  that 
will  kill.  And  I  know  dozens  and  dozens 
of  young  men  who  do  not." 

We  talked  with  nurses  in  hospitals,  with 
convalescent  soldiers,  with  mothers  of  those 
who  had  been  at  home  on  furlough  and  had 
gone  back  into  the  trenches,  and  we  learned 
that  there  are  surprising  numbers  of  young 
men  who  will  not  do  any  fatal  shooting  be- 
cause they  think  that  no  one  has  the  right 
to  command  them  to  take  human  life. 
From  one  hospital  we  heard  of  five  soldiers 
who  had  been  cured  and  were  ready  to  be 
sent  back  to  the  trenches,  when  they  com- 
mitted suicide,  not  because  they  were  afraid 
to  die  but  they  would  not  be  put  into  a 
position  where  they  would  have  to  kill 
others. 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR         ,71 

I  recall  a  spirited  young  man  who  said  : 
"We  are  told  that  we  are  fighting  for  civiliza- 
tion but  I  tell  you  that  war  destroys  civiliza- 
tion. The  highest  product  of  the  univer- 
sities, the  scholar,  the  philosopher,  the  poet, 
when  he  is  in  the  trenches,  when  he  spends 
his  days  and  nights  in  squalor  and  brutality 
and  horror,  is  as  low  and  brutal  as  the  rudest 
peasant.  They  say,  those  newspaper  writers, 
that  it  is  wonderful  to  see  the  courage 
of  the  men  in  the  trenches,  singing,  joking, 
playing  cards,  while  the  shells  fall  around 
them.  Courage  there  is  no  room  for,  just 
as  there  is  no  room  for  cowardice.  One 
cannot  rush  to  meet  the  enemy,  one  cannot 
even  see  him.  The  shells  fall  here  or  they 
fall  there.  If  you  are  brave,  you  cannot  defy 
them ;  if  you  are  a  coward,  you  cannot  flee 
from  them  ;  it  is  all  chance.  You  see  the  man 
you  were  playing  cards  with  a  while  ago  lying 
on  the  ground  a  bloody  mass  and  you  look 
at  him  and  think,  'Well,  this  time  it  took 
him ;  in  a  few  minutes  it  may  be  my  turn  ; 
let's  go  back  to  the  cards.'  And  all  the  time 
you  loathe  the  squalor,  the  brutality,  the 
savages  around  you,  and  the  savage  you  are 


72  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

yourself  becoming.  Why  should  you  kill 
men  who  live  in  other  countries,  men  whom 
in  times  of  peace  3^ou  would  like  and  respect  ? 
At  least  I  can  say  that  as  yet  I  have  escaped 
the  horror  of  killing  any  one." 

It  is  such  a  state  of  mind  which  is  respon- 
sible for  the  high  percentage  of  insanity 
among  the  soldiers.  In  the  trains  for  the 
wounded  there  is  often  a  closed  van  in  which 
are  kept  the  men  who  have  lost  their  minds. 
Sometimes  they  recover  after  due  care,  and 
sometimes  they  prove  to  be  hopelessly  in- 
sane. A  young  Russian  wrote  home  :  "Men 
have  fought  from  the  beginning  of  history, 
yet  no  one  has  ever  recorded  that  so  many 
soldiers  lost  their  minds,  were  driven  mad 
by  war.  Do  you  suppose  it  was  true  always, 
or  is  it  only  true  in  this  generation  .? " 

In  every  country  we  heard  of  the  loathing 
against  the  use  of  the  bayonet  felt  by  this 
type  of  young  man  to  whom  primitive  war- 
fare was  especially  abhorrent,  although  he 
was  a  brave  soldier  and  serving  his  country 
with  all  his  heart.  We  heard  from  interned 
soldiers  in  Holland  that  they  had  escaped 
across  the  border  dazed  and  crazed  after  a 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  73 

bayonet  charge;  from  hospital  nurses  who 
said  that  dehrious  soldiers  are  again  and 
again  possessed  by  the  same  hallucination  — 
that  they  are  in  the  act  of  pulling  their 
bayonets  out  of  the  bodies  of  men  they  have 
killed;  from  the  returned  soldiers  one  of 
whom  said  to  us:  "A  bayonet  charge  does 
not  show  courage,  but  madness.  Men  must 
be  brought  to  the  point  by  stimulants  and 
once  the  charge  is  begun  they  are  like  insane 
men.  I  have  been  in  it  and  after  it  was  over 
I  was  utterly  dazed.  I  did  not  know  what 
had  happened  to  me  any  more  than  if  I 
had  been  picked  up  from  the  water  after  an 
explosion  on  shipboard." 

We  were  told  in  several  countries  that  in 
order  to  inhibit  the  sensibilities  of  this  type 
of  man,  stimulants  were  given  to  the  soldiers 
before  a  charge  was  ordered  ;  that  the  giving 
of  stimulants  was  a  quicker  process  than 
that  incitement  to  reprisals  and  revenge 
which  in  actual  warfare  often  serves  as  an 
immediate  incentive.  In  illustration  of  such 
substitution,  a  Frenchman  said  that  "since 
the  use  of  poisonous  gases  by  the  Germans, 
no  further  stimulants  would  be  needed  for  a 


74  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

thoroughly  indignant  and  aroused  soldiery"; 
an  Englishman  spoke  of  the  difficulties  in 
the  early  months  of  the  war  in  overcoming 
the  camaraderie  unhappily  evinced  by  certain 
British  troops  for  the  Saxons  long  established 
in  an  opposite  trench,  and  the  relief  when 
the  Bavarians  took  their  places,  against 
whom  no  incitement  to  hostility  was  nec- 
essary. 

It  never  occurred  to  us  who  heard  this 
statement,  nor  to  those  who  made  it,  that  this 
was  done  because  the  men  lacked  courage. 
It  would  be  impossible  of  course  from  one 
type  of  man  to  make  any  generalizations  in 
regard  to  the  "average"  soldier.  One  of 
the  hideous  results  of  war  is  the  inveterate 
tendency  of  the  "average"  man  to  fall  into 
the  spirit  of  retaUation.  We  were  told  in 
two  countries  that  the  soldiers  were  being 
supplied  as  fast  as  possible  with  short  knives 
because  they  could  not  advantageously  use 
their  bayonets  in  the  occasional  hand-to- 
hand  encounters  within  the  trenches  them- 
selves and  we,  of  course,  know  of  the  men  who 
said  of  the  bayonet  charge :  "Ah,  that  is 
fighting,  when  the  primitive  man  lets  himself 


THE   REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  75 

go  and  does  the  sort  of  fighting  which  is 
personal  and  definite!"  We  heard  tales  of 
the  reactions  on  both  types  of  men  and  it  is 
farthest  frorn  my  intention  to  add  one  word 
to  the  campaign  of  calumny,  to  disparage 
either  the  motives  or  the  courage  of  the 
long  line  of  fighting  soldiers,  to  repeat  one 
tale  of  horror  which  might  increase  that 
poverty  of  heart  induced  by  hatred. 

In  addition  to  the  revolt  against  war  on 
the  part  of  the  young  men,  there  was  discern- 
ible everywhere  among  the  civilian  popula- 
tion two  bodies  of  enthusiasm  :  one,  and  by 
far  the  larger,  believes  that  the  war  can  be 
settled  only  upon  a  military  basis  after  a 
series  of  smashing  victories ;  the  other,  a 
civil  party,  very  much  deprecates  the  exal- 
tation of  militarism  and  contends  that  the 
longer  the  war  is  carried  on,  the  longer  the 
military  continues  censoring  the  press  and 
exercising  other  powers  not  ordinarily  ac- 
corded to  it  —  thus  breaking  down  safeguards 
of  civil  government,  many  of  which  have 
been  won  at  the  hardest  —  the  more  difficult 
it  will  be  for  normal  civil  life  to  reestablish 
itself. 


^d  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

Many  of  the  people  whom  we  met  were 
therefore  anxious  that  the  war  should  be 
speedily  terminated  —  of  course  always  a 
peace  with  honor  —  if  only  because  of  its 
effect  upon  the  internal  development  of 
national  life.  They  believed  in  the  war  and 
yet  they  labored  under  a  certain  apprehen- 
sion that  the  longer  it  was  continued  the 
more  difficult  it  would  be  for  the  civil  au- 
thorities to  win  back  the  liberties  they  had 
once  possessed.  In  the  warring  capitals, 
citizens  are  under  military  law  and  are  sub- 
ject to  fine  and  imprisonment,  or  both,  for 
its  infraction.  The  military  authorities  can, 
on  mere  suspicion,  arrest  a  citizen  without 
warrant  and  also  enter  his  house.  Such 
"defence  of  the  realm"  acts  are  submitted 
to  patiently  as  a  part  of  war,  but  the  people 
who  represent  the  civil  view  of  life,  even  in 
the  midst  of  their  patriotic  fervor  and  de- 
votion to  the  army,  long  for  some  other  form 
of  settlement  than  that  obtained  by  military 
victory.  While  they  ardently  desire  a  re- 
lease from  the  intolerable  strain,  they  realize 
that  to  have  salvation  come  through  the 
army    would    be    to    desperately    entrench 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  77 

militarism  and  to  add  dangerously  to  its 
prestige  and  glory. 

In  Germany  we  met  patriotic  citizens  who 
felt  that  one  of  the  dangers  of  a  peace  de- 
termined through  military  successes,  es- 
pecially if  those  were  won  on  the  eastern 
front,  would  be  the  likelihood  that  terms 
would  be  made  through  Russia,  establishing 
militarism  yet  more  firmly.  If  peace  were 
made  through  negotiations,  then  the  western 
nations  under  England's  lead  would  have  the 
preponderance  of  influence;  that  is,  the 
military  authorities  would  be  more  sym- 
pathetic to  the  Russian  type  of  settlement 
and  the  civil  authorities  to  the  western  type. 
The  longer  the  war  goes  on,  however,  the 
more  likely  it  is  that  the  settlement  will 
depend  upon  the  victories  of  one  nation  or 
the  other. 

We  were  told  in  England  that  this  war  in 
essence  is  a  conflict  between  militarism  and 
democracy,  but  the  situation  is  obviously 
not  so  simple  as  that.  War  itself  destroys 
democracy  wherever  it  thrives  and  tends  to 
entrench  militarism.  If  the  object  of  the 
war  is  to  down  militarism,  it  must  be  clear 


78  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

that  the  very  prolongation  of  the  war  en- 
trenches the  military  ideal  not  only  in  Russia 
and  Germany,  but  in  the  more  democratic 
nations  as  well.  No  one  would  urge  that 
a  settlement  through  negotiations  is  the 
only  way  to  preserve  democratic  institu- 
tions, but  certainly  the  present  method  runs 
great  risk.  The  immediacy  of  negotiations 
is  therefore  a  factor  in  the  situation.  They 
should  be  begun  while  the  civil  authorities 
still  have  enough  power  to  hold  the  military 
to  their  own  purposes  and  are  not  obhged 
to  give  them  the  absolute  control  of  the 
destinies  of  the  nation.  If  you  point  out 
to  an  Englishman  that  democracy  will  not 
gain  if  German  militarism  is  crushed  and  a 
new  war  party  sits  in  every  capital  of  Europe, 
he  will  tell  you  that  such  a  situation,  if  it 
arises,  must  be  attended  to  afterwards,  that 
at  present  the  allies  are  crushing  the  Prussian 
type  of  militarism.  It  seems  clear  however 
to  the  neutral  observer  that  in  the  mean- 
time, while  the  crushing  process  goes  on, 
militarism  is  firml}^  lodged  in  men's  minds 
and  that  no  body  of  men  is  seriously  trying 
to    discover    how    far    militarism    is    being 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  79 

crushed  by  this  war  or  how  far  civil  forces 
are  merely  becoming  exhausted  and  methods 
of  negotiation  discredited. 

The  behef  that  the  restitution  of  Belgium 
can  only  be  obtained  through  "driving  out 
the  invaders  "  by  an  opposing  army  has  al- 
ready become  estabhshed  in  the  minds  of 
thousands  of  people.  Yet  we  met,  during  our 
weeks  in  Europe,  many  exiled  Belgians, 
who  told  us  they  could  not  go  back  to  their 
own  country  because  of  the  fear  that  the 
Germans  would  be  beaten  back  over  the 
same  territory  that  had  already  been  dev- 
astated and  that  a  retreating  army  is  always 
the  worst.  Some  of  these  Belgians  hoped 
that  Belgium  would  be  evacuated  through 
negotiations  and  treaties,  and  yet  so  com- 
pletely has  method  become  confused  with 
aim  in  this  war,  militarism  with  the  object 
to  be  accomplished,  that  in  the  desire  to  drive 
the  invaders  out,  the  aim  of  gettmg  the  peace- 
ful Belgians  back  in  their  own  country 
was  for  the  moment  overshadowed,  although 
to  accomplish  this  through  negotiation  rather 
than  bloodshed  would  be  an  enormous  gain 
for    all    concerned.     There    are    civilians    in 


8o  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

Germany  who  are  anxious  to  hold  the  Ger- 
man generals  to  their  own  statement  that 
they  marched  through  Belgium  as  a  matter 
of  military  necessity  and  not  for  conquest, 
and  early  in  July  a  petition,  signed  by  eighty- 
four  leading  men  of  Germany,  was  presented 
to  the  Chancellor,  urging  that  there  be  no 
annexation  of  territory  as  a  result  of  the  war. 

If  the  Germans  are  to  evacuate  Belgium 
without  bloodshed,  it  must  be  through  the 
cooperation  of  such  groups  of  civilians  as 
these.  It  is  the  civilian  who  is  interested 
in  freeing  the  channels  of  trade,  in  breaking 
down  unnatural  tariff  walls,  and  restoring 
life  to  a  normal  basis. 

Yet  so  long  as  the  military  process  ab- 
sorbs the  attention  of  all  of  Europe,  it  is 
obvious  that  groups  of  civilians  in  different 
countries  are  constantly  becoming  so  en- 
feebled that  their  counsels  may  easily  be 
overborne. 

Everywhere  we  were  conscious  of  a  certain 
revolt,  not  of  nationalistic  feeling  nor  of 
patriotism,  but  of  human  nature  itself  as 
of  hedged  in,  harassed  peoples,  **as  if  the 
Atlantic   Ocean   had   been   partitioned   with 


THE  REVOLT  AGAINST  WAR  8 1 

great  bulkheads  into  private  seas  and  the 
Gulf  Stream  blocked  in  its  course."  There 
had  apparently  been  an  accumulation  within 
national  borders  of  those  higher  human 
affections  which  should  have  had  an  outlet 
into  the  larger  life  of  the  world  but  could 
not,  because  no  international  devices  had 
been  provided  for  such  expression.  No 
great  central  authority  had  been  dealing 
with  this  sum  of  human  goodwill,  as  a  scien- 
tist deals  with  the  body  of  knowledge  in 
his  subject  irrespective  of  its  national  origins, 
and  the  nations  themselves  became  confused 
between  what  was  legitimate  patriotism  and 
those  universal  emotions  which  have  nothing 
to  do  with  national  frontiers. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR 
Jane  Addams 

(a)  The  Press 

(b)  Isolation  of  Peace  Advocates 

(c)  No  Adequate  Ojffer  of  Negotiations 

Travelling  rapidly,  as  we  did,  from  one 
country  to  another,  perhaps  nothing  was  more 
striking  than  the  diametrically  opposing 
opinions  we  found  concerning  identical  oc- 
currences or  series  of  events. 

We  arrived  in  London  two  days  after  the 
sinking  of  the  Lusitania  and  read  in  many 
columns  the  indignation  against  this  "crown- 
ing outrage  of  German  piracy  upon  helpless 
women  and  children."  So  profound  was 
this  feeling  that  during  the  next  few  days 
when  we  were  still  in  London,  the  English 
Parliament,  following  the  attacks  upon  the 
German  bakeshops  and  other  places  of  busi- 
ness,   decided    to    intern    German    subjects. 

82 


FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR    83 

Ten  days  later  when  we  reached  Berlin, 
their  citizens  were  still  rejoicing  over  the 
victory  which  had  been  achieved  by  a  tiny 
submarine  over  the  "great  auxihary  cruiser  of 
the  British  Navy,"  in  phrases  reminding  us 
of  the  old  story  in  our  school  books  about 
the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac. 

Inevitably  the  inferences  from  these  widely 
divergent  facts  were  irreconcilable.  Even 
reasonable  and  justice-loving  people  in  both 
countries,  who  wished  to  be  sure  of  their 
data  before  passing  judgment,  would  be  quite 
unable  to  deal  impartially  with  the  situation. 
As  to  the  large  number  of  people  found  on 
both  sides  who  grasp  eagerly  at  any  atrocity 
which  may  justify  or  increase  the  bitter 
animosity  against  the  enemy,  we  were  ab- 
solutely unable  to  determine  whether  the 
hate  produced  the  atrocities,  or  the  atrocities 
the  hate. 

Almost  every  tale  we  heard  in  London  of 
outrages  on  the  part  of  German  soldiers 
against  the  helpless  Belgians  was  repeated  in 
Vienna  of  the  brutal  behavior  of  the  Cossack 
soldiers  in  East  Prussia.  Our  delegation 
reached   Italy  ten   days   after  war  was   de- 


84  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

clared  against  Austria.  A  Socialist  Member 
of  Parliament,  proud  of  the  fact  that  his 
party  had  voted  against  the  war  appropria- 
tion, told  us  unequivocally  that  "This  was  a 
newspaper-made  war,"  —  that  a  campaign 
conducted  throughout  the  winter  had  cul- 
minated in  a  sensational  three  days,  when  th^ 
people  reached  the  highest  degree  of  excite- 
ment. One  is,  of  course,  reminded  of  the  old 
nursery  riddle  :  Which  is  first,  the  egg  or  the 
hen  .?  Does  public  opinion  control  the  press 
or  the  reverse  .?  It  was  perhaps  inevitable  for 
our  Socialist  friend  to  believe  that  the  great 
Italian  banks  with  their  interests  in  Dal- 
matia  were  the  actual  power. 

The  press  everywhere  tended  to  make  an 
entire  nation  responsible  for  the  crimes  of 
individuals,  a  tendency  which  is  certainly 
fraught  with  awful  consequences,  even  though 
the  crimes  for  which  the  nation  is  held  re- 
sponsible may  have  originated  in  the  gross 
exaggeration  of  some  trivial  incident.  The 
very  size  and  extent  of  the  contention  acts 
like  a  madness. 

This  perhaps  accounts  for  the  impression 
left  upon  our  minds  that  in  the  various  coun- 


FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR    85 

tries  the  enthusiasm  for  continuing  the  war  is 
fed  largely  on  a  fund  of  animosity  growing 
out  of  the  conduct  of  the  war.  Germany  is 
indignant  because  England's  blockade  was 
an  attempt  to  starve  her  w^omen  and  children ; 
England  is  on  fire  over  the  German  atroci- 
ties in  Belgium.  A  )^oung  man  in  France 
said,  "We  hope  to  be  able  very  soon  to  squirt 
petroleum  into  the  German  trenches  so  that 
everything  will  easily  catch  fire."  I  re- 
plied, ''That  seems  very  terrible."  "Yes," 
he  said,  "but  think  of  the  poisonous  gas 
and  the  horrible  death  of  our  men  who  were 
asphyxiated." 

In  each  country,  we  were  told  of  hideous 
occurrences  of  warfare  which  demonstrated 
that  the  continued  existence  of  the  enemy 
was  a  menace  to  civiHzation.  Constantly 
one  hears  that  Germany  has  done  this ; 
the  alHes  have  done  that;  somebody  tried 
to  do  this  and  we  prevented  it  by  doing  that. 
But  after  all,  great  nations,  however  legiti- 
mate the  first  cause  of  war  may  have  been, 
cannot  conduct  their  operations  from  the 
standpoint  of  reprisals,  which  is  not  a  per- 
missible method  even  among  small  groups. 


86  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

Occasionally  we  met  a  man  who  said,  "Of 
course,  in  the  end  the  war  must  be  adjudi- 
cated with  the  original  causes  as  a  factor,  but 
we  are  getting  farther  away  from  the  causes 
every  day,  and  more  and  more  the  conduct 
of  the  war  is  modifying  its  aim," 

Is  it  because  this  war  has  been  carried  tq. 
the  very  doorsteps  of  those  people  in  Europe 
who  have  reached  a  stage  of  sensibility 
towards  human  suffering  and  an  under- 
standing of  the  differing  individual  which 
has  never  been  obtained  before  in  human 
history,  that  the  gathering  horror  drives 
them  on  ?  or  is  the  mind  of  Europe  sub- 
merged under  a  great  emotionalism,  inhibit- 
ing normal  family  affections  and  dail}^  inter- 
ests so  that  thousands  of  people  joyfully 
surrender  their  children  and  all  their  pos- 
sessions. A  Frenchman  looking  around  his 
library  said  to  us  :  "I  used  to  think  there  was 
something  valuable  in  these  books,  but  I 
would  throw  them  at  once  into  the  trenches, 
if  their  burning  would  so  heat  the  hands  of 
a  soldier  that  he  might  shoot  to  kill  one  man 
of  that  nation  which  is  destroying  the  hberties 
of  Europe." 


FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR    87 

Nevertheless  the  fanatical  patriotism  which 
has  risen  so  high  in  these  countries,  and  which 
is  essentially  so  line  and  imposing,  cannot 
last.  The  wave  will  come  down,  the  crest 
cannot  be  held  indefinitely.  Then  men 
must  see  the  horrible  things  which  are  taking 
place  not  as  causes  for  continuing  the  war, 
but  as  that  which  must  never  be  allowed  to 
occur  again.  At  the  present  moment,  how- 
ever, the  man  whose  burning  heart  can  find 
no  slightest  justification  for  the  loss  of  the 
finest  youth  of  Europe  unless  it  results  in 
the  establishment  of  such  international  courts 
as  will  make  war  forever  impossible,  finds  it 
difficult  to  discover  a  vehicle  through  which 
he  may  express  this  view.  International 
ideals  for  the  moment  are  treated  not  only 
with  derision  and  contempt  but  as  dangerous 
to  patriotism. 

In  every  country  we  found  evidence  of 
a  group  of  men  and  women  —  how  large,  we 
were,  of  course,  unable  to  determine  —  who 
although  they  were  not  opposed  to  the  war 
and  regarded  their  own  countries  as  sinned 
against  and  not  as  sinning,  still  felt  that 
their  respective  countries  ought  to  be  con- 


88  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

tent  with  a  limited  programme  of  victory. 
Yet  even  in  England  a  man  who  says 
that  peace  ought  to  be  made  with  Germany 
on  any  other  terms  than  dictation  by  the 
allies  is  attacked  by  the  newspapers  as 
pro-German,  without  any  reference  as  to 
whether  those  terms  are  favorable  or  not  to 
his  country. 

A  good  patriot  of  differing  opinion  finds 
it  almost  impossible  to  reach  his  fellow 
countrymen  with  that  opinion,  because  he 
would  not  for  the  world  print  anything  which 
might  confuse  the  popular  mind,  for  war 
belongs  to  that  state  of  society  in  which 
right  and  wrong  must  be  absolute. 

The  huge  agglomerations  of  human  beings 
of  which  modern  society  is  composed  com- 
municate with  each  other  largely  through 
the  printed  word  and,  poor  method  as 
it  is,  apparently  public  opinion  cannot  be 
quickly  discovered  through  any  other  agency. 
Certainly  the  most  touching  interview  we 
had  on  the  continent  was  with  a  man  who 
had  been  in  a  responsible  position  in  England 
when  war  was  declared  and  who  was  over- 
burdened equally  with  the  sense  that  he  had 


FACTORS   IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR     89 

failed  to  convince  his  countrymen  that  the 
war  was  unnecessary  and  with  the  futiUty  of 
making  any  further  effort. 

This  lack  of  mobilization  of  pubhc  opinion 
in  so  many  of  the  countries  of  Europe  is  at 
present  a  serious  aspect  of  the  war.  Even  in 
the  most  autocratic  countries,  Governments 
respond  to  public  opinion  and  governmental 
policies  are  modified  as  men  of  similar 
opinion  gather  into  small  groups,  as  they 
make  a  clear  statement  of  that  opinion,  and 
as  they  promote  larger  groups.  At  the  pres- 
ent moment  this  entire  process  in  the  modi- 
fication of  governmental  policies  is  brought  to 
a  standstill  among  the  warring  nations,  even 
in  England  where  the  very  method  of  govern- 
mental change  depends  upon  the  registry  of 
public  opinion. 

But  as  like-minded  people  within  the 
borders  of  a  warring  nation  cannot  find  each 
other,  much  less  easily  can  the  search  be  con- 
ducted beyond  the  lines  of  battle.  As  we 
went  from  one  country  to  another,  people 
would  say,  "Did  you  find  any  one  taking  our 
line,  thinking  as  we  do?"  The  people,  as 
a  whole,  do  not  know  even  the  contemplated 


90  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

terms  of  settlement  and  could  only  learn 
them  through  a  free  and  courageous  press, 
while  the  governmental  officials  themselves 
could  only  thus  obtain  a  full  knowledge  of 
public  opinion  concerning  the  continuance 
of  the  war.  Ever)^  pubhc  man  in  Europe 
knows  that  before  the  rulers  will  think  of 
peace,  they  must  know  that  behind  them, 
if  they  advocate  peace,  there  would  be  a 
grateful  and  passionate  opinion  ready  to 
support  them  against  the  militarists.  Even 
pacifically  inclined  ministers  in  the  Govern- 
ment itself  dare  not  talk  of  treating  with  the 
enemy  while  the  only  vocal  opinion  in  news- 
papers and  speeches  is  in  favor  of  fighting 
till  the  enem}^  surrenders  unconditionally. 
Preeminently  in  Great  Britain  and  Ger- 
many any  peace  negotiation  can  be  stopped 
by  the  militarist  elements,  which  predominate 
during  war  in  Government  circles.  But  how 
can  peace  processes  be  begun  if  none  of  the 
leading  journals  dare  call  upon  "the  various 
Governments  to  declare  what  to  each  nation 
is  the  essential  and  indispensable  condition 
for  ceasing  the  conflict,"  which  would  of 
course  be  but  a  preliminary  to  negotiations 


FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR    91 

and  the  final  terms  of  peace.  If  in  the  end 
adjustment  must  be  reached  through  the 
coming  together  of  like-minded  people  in 
the  contending  nations,  it  is  a  thousand 
pities  that  it  should  fail  through  lack  of  a 
mechanism  whereby  they  might  find  each 
other.  In  the  meantime,  the  very  founda- 
tions of  a  noble  national  Hfe  are  being  every- 
where undermined  by  the  constant  dis- 
paragement of  other  nations,  and  as  each 
fears  nothing  more  than  an  appearance  of 
the  weariness  of  the  war,  the  desire  for  peace 
filling  many  hearts  is  denied  all  journalistic 
expression  while  the  war  spirit  is  continually 
fed  by  the  outrages  of  the  war,  as  flames 
are  fed  by  fuel. 

At  moments  I  found  myself  filled  with 
a  conviction  that  the  next  revolution  against 
tyranny  would  have  to  be  a  revolution 
against  the  unscrupulous  power  of  the  press. 
A  distinguished  European,  accustomed  to 
addressing  the  civiHzed  world  through  the 
printed  page,  finding  himself  unable  to 
reach  even  his  own  countrymen,  suggested  to 
us  the  plight  of  a  caged  lion  as  he  vehemently 
walked  up  and  down  a  little  alcove  in  our  hotel, 


92  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

expressing  his  exasperation  and  despair. 
To  m}^  mind  the  message  he  was  not 
permitted  to  give  was  the  one  which  Europe 
needed  above  all  others  and  the  self-exiled 
pacifists,  French,  German,  Austrian,  Enghsh, 
and  Belgian,  whom  we  met  in  Switzerland, 
were  a  curious  comment  on  the  freedom  of 
the  press. 

Tw^o  conclusions  were  inevitably  forced 
upon  us.  First :  that  the  people  of  the 
different  countries  could  not  secure  the  ma- 
terial upon  which  they  might  form  a  sound 
judgment  of  the  situation,  because  the  press 
with  the  opportunity  of  determining  opinion 
by  selecting  data,  had  assumed  the  power 
once  exercised  by  the  church  when  it  gave 
to  the  people  only  such  knowledge  as  it 
deemed  fit  for  them  to  have.  Second  :  that 
in  each  country  the  leading  minds  were  not 
bent  upon  a  solution  nor  to  the  great  task 
that  would  bring  international  order  out  of 
the  present  anarchy,  because  they  were  ab- 
sorbed in  preconceived  judgments,  and  had 
become  confused  through  the  hmitations 
imposed  upon  their  sources  of  information. 
The  civiHan  point  of  view  and  even  a  hint 


FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR 


93 


of  the  revolt  against  war  was  reflected  in  the 
foreign  offices  themselves  as  we  visited  one 
after  another  in  five  weeks.  We  were 
received  by  Prime  Minister  Cort  van  der 
Linden  and  Foreign  Minister  Loudon,  in  The 
Hague  ;  Prime  Minister  Asquith  and  Foreign 
Minister  Sir  Edward  Grey,  in  London ; 
Reichskanzler  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  and 
Foreign  Minister  von  Jagow,  in  Berlin ; 
Prime  Minister  Stuergkh  and  Foreign  Min- 
ister Burian,  in  Vienna ;  Prime  Minister 
Tisza,  in  Budapest ;  Prime  Minister  Salandra 
and  Foreign  Minister  Sonino,  in  Rome ;  Prime 
Minister  Viviani  and  Foreign  Minister  Del- 
casse,  in  Paris ;  Foreign  Minister  d'Avignon, 
in  Havre;  President  Motta  and  Foreign 
Minister  Hofi^man,  in  Berne. 

Our  message  was  a  simple  one.  After 
discussing  our  resolutions  we  ventured  to 
report  to  the  men  who  are  after  all  responsible 
for  the  happenings  of  Europe  that  the  fifteen 
hundred  women  who  met  in  The  Hague, 
coming  in  smaller  or  larger  numbers  from 
twelve  different  countries,  urge  that  what- 
ever the  causes  of  the  war  and  however 
necessary  it  may  have  been  to  carry  it  on 


94  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

for  the  past  ten  months,  that  the  time  has 
come  for  beginning  some  sort  of  negotiations 
which  must  in  the  end  take  place  unless  the 
war  shall  continue  year  after  year  and  at 
last  be  terminated  through  sheer  exhaustion. 
We  implied  that  if  Europe  is  in  disorder  be- 
cause of  deep-rooted  injustices  or  becaus.e 
certain  nations  are  deprived  of  commercial, 
political,  or  maritime  opportunities,  that  the 
solution  can  be  discovered  much  better  by 
men  who  consider  the  situation  on  its  merits 
than  by  those  who  approach  it  on  the  basis 
of  military  victories  or  losses. 

In  reply  to  this  we  heard  everywhere, 
again  in  very  similar  phrases,  that  a  nation 
at  war  cannot  ask  for  negotiations  nor  even 
express  a  willingness  for  them,  lest  the  enemy 
at  once  construe  it  as  a  symptom  of  weakness, 
for  when  the  terms  are  made,  the  side  which 
first  suggested  negotiations  will  suffer  as 
being  considered  the  weaker  side  suing  for 
peace. 

But  they  said,  in  all  save  one  of  these 
foreign  offices,  that  tentative  propositions 
should  first  be  presented  by  some  outside 
power,  —  if  neutral  people  commanding  the 


FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR    95 

respect  of  the  foreign  offices  to  whom  their 
propositions  would  be  presented  should  study 
the  situation  seriously  and  make  propositions, 
over  and  over  again  if  necessary,  something 
might  be  found  upon  which  negotiations 
might  begin,  and  that  there  were  none  of 
the  warring  nations  that  would  not  be  ready 
to  receive  such  service. 

It  may  be  natural  for  the  minister  of  a 
nation  at  war  to  say,  "This  country  will 
never  receive  negotiations ;  we  are  going  to 
drive  the  enemy  out  inch  by  inch,"  but  it  is 
difficult  for  him  to  repeat  it  to  a  delegation 
of  women  who  reply:  "If  a  feasible  proposi- 
tion were  presented  to  you,  which  might 
mean  the  beginning  of  negotiations  between 
your  country  and  your  enemies,  would  you 
decline  to  receive  such  a  proposition  ?  Would 
you  feel  justified  to  go  on  sacrificing  the 
young  men  of  your  country  in  order  to  attain 
through  bloodshed  what  might  be  obtained 
by  negotiations,  the  very  purpose  for  which 
the  foreign  office  was  established?"  No 
minister,  of  course,  is  willing  to  commit  him- 
self to  such  an  undeviating  policy. 

On   the    contrary   one  of  them   said  that 


96  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

he  had  wondered  many  times  since  the  war 
began  why  women  had  remained  silent  so 
long,  adding  that  as  women  are  not  ex- 
pected to  fight  they  might  easily  have  made 
a  protest  against  war  which  is  denied  to 
men. 

We  went  into  the  office  of  another  high 
official,  a  large,  grizzled,  formidable  man. 
When  we  had  finished  our  presentation 
and  he  said  nothing,  I  remarked,  "It  perhaps 
seems  to  you  very  fooHsh  that  women  should 
go  about  in  this  way ;  but  after  all,  the  world 
itself  is  so  strange  in  this  war  situation  that 
our  mission  may  be  no  more  strange  nor 
foolish  than  the  rest." 

He  banged  his  fist  on  the  table.  "Fool- 
ish.^" he  said.  "Not  at  all.  These  are  the 
first  sensible  words  that  have  been  uttered 
in  this  room  for  ten  months." 

He  continued:  "That  door  opens  from 
time  to  time,  and  people  come  in  to  say, 
*Mr.  Minister,  we  must  have  more  men, 
we  must  have  more  ammunition,  we  must 
have  more  money  or  we  cannot  go  on  with 
this  war.*  At  last  the  door  opens  and  two 
people  walk  in  and  say,  'Mr.  Minister,  why 


FACTORS  IN  CONTINUING  THE  WAR    97 

not  substitute  negotiations  for  fighting?' 
They  are   the  sensible  ones." 

Other  people,  of  course,  said  that  he  was 
an  old  man  and  losing  his  poUtical  power. 
Yet  he  was  an  officer  of  the  Government  in 
high  place  and  the  incident  is  repeated  for 
whatever  value  it  may  have.  It  is  by  no 
means  an  isolated  one,  and  we  had  other 
testimonials  of  the  same  sort  from  the  people 
whose  nations  are  at  war. 

Our  mission  was  simple,  and  foolish  it 
may  be,  but  it  was  not  impossible.  Perhaps 
the  ministers  talked  freely  to  us  because 
we  were  so  absolutely  unofficial.  "Without 
abandoning  your  cause  and  without  lowering 
your  patriotism,"  we  practically  said  to  the 
representatives  of  these  various  nations, 
"whatever  it  is  which  you  ought  in  honor 
to  obtain,  why  are  you  not  wilHng  to  submit 
your  case  to  a  tribunal  of  fair-minded  men  .? 
If  your  cause  is  as  good  as  you  are  sure  it  is, 
certainly  such  men  will  find  the  righteousness 
which  adheres  within  it."  Responsible  people 
in  all  the  warring  powers  said  that  if  the 
right  medium  could  be  found,  there  would 
be  no  difficulty  in  submitting  the  case. 

H 


98  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

We  do  not  wish  to  overestimate  a  very 
slight  achievement  nor  to  take  too  seriously 
the  kindness  with  which  the  delegation  was 
received,  but  we  do  wish  to  record  ourselves 
as  being  quite  sure  that  at  least  a  few  citizens 
in  these  various  countries,  some  of  them 
officials  in  high  places,  were  grateful  for  the 
effort  we  made. 


CHAPTER  V 

AT  THE  NORTHERN  CAPITALS 

Emily  G.  Balch 

The  second  delegation,  of  which  I  was 
a  member,  was  assigned  to  the  Scandinavian 
countries  and  to  Russia. 

The  delegation  was  made  up  of  one  from 
each  of  the  belHgerent  sides  and  one 
from  two  neutral  countries.  It  comprised 
Chrystal  Macmillan,  one  of  the  two  very 
able  British  delegates  at  the  Congress ; 
Rosika  Schwimmer,  politically  a  Hungarian, 
but  to  whom  nothing  human  is  ahen ; 
Madam  Ramondt-Hirschman,  one  of  the 
most  active  of  the  hospitable  and  capable 
Dutch  women  who  prepared  the  way  for 
the  Congress ;  and  myself,  coming  from  the 
United  States.  Grace  Wales,  a  Canadian, 
the  author  of  the  well-known  pamphlet  "Con- 
tinuous Mediation  without  Armistice,"  also 
went  with  us  to  the  Scandinavian  countries, 
nominally  as  our  secretary. 

99 


lOO  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

The  natural  route  from  Amsterdam  to 
Copenhagen  is  overland  through  Germany  to 
Warnemiinde.  To  be  sure,  under  war  con- 
ditions with  no  night  trains,  it  takes  two  days, 
with  an  over-night  stop  at  Hamburg,  but 
this  was  the  least  of  the  difficulty.  Our 
two  British  friends  could  not  cross  "enemy" 
territory,  and  to  find  a  boat  was  not  easy. 
When  found,  it  was  a  little  freighter,  with 
no  cabin  but  the  captain's,  no  woman  on 
board,  inconvenient  in  every  way. 

As  only  one  passenger  could  go  on  the 
boat,  it  was  decided  Miss  Wales  should  go 
ahead,  this  delay  leaving  Miss  Macmillan 
a  week  more  for  work  on  the  very  difficult 
task  of  preparing  our  polyglot  proceed- 
ings for  a  printer  whose  proof-setting  and 
proof-reading  customs  were  entirely  strange 
to  us. 

The  other  three  of  us  went  by  train  through 
fields  with  thriving  crops  and  few  men-folk, 
over  heaths  where  prisoners  of  war  were 
at  work  converting  the  moor  into  ploughland, 
past  station  platforms  where  fathers  and 
wives  were  bidding  sad  good-bys  to  their 
soldier  boys,  and  where  girls  with  the  red  cross 


AT  THE  NORTHERN  CAPITALS       loi 

on  their  arms  were  serving  refreshments  to 
passing  troops. 

In  Copenhagen  we  were  welcomed  by  our 
Hague  friends,  photographed,  interviewed, 
feted.  While  all  this  has  its  value,  as  it  gives 
occasion  for  discussing  peace  issues  and  for 
knitting  international  ties,  our  mission  was  a 
formal  one.  We  were  accordingly  very  glad 
when  arrangements  were  completed  for  an 
interview  with  Prime  Minister  Zahle,  and  Min- 
ister of  Foreign  Affairs  Scavenius.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  interview  we  left  for  Norway. 

In  Christiania  our  programme  was  even 
fuller.  Our  first  interview  was  with  King 
Haakon  VII,  who  kept  us  so  long  that  we 
began  to  fear  that,  in  our  ignorance  of 
ceremonial,  we  had  missed  the  signal  which 
ends  a  royal  reception.  Only  at  the  end  of 
an  hour  and  three-quarters  it  came.  The 
talk  was  wide-ranging,  yet  it  ever  centred 
about  the  war.  The  King  appeared  to  be 
deeply  interested  in  our  mediation  plan. 
He  spoke  with  evident  satisfaction  of  Nor- 
way's equal  suffrage. 

We  went  directly  from  the   King  to  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Ihlen,  and  later 


102  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

were  given  an  appointment  with  Knudsen, 
the  Prime  Minister.  We  were  also  given 
what  is,  we  were  told,  the  most  formal  recog- 
nition that  can  be  given  to  unofficial  persons, 
being  received  in  the  ParHament  House  by 
the  four  presidents  of  the  Storting  or  Parlia- 
ment—  President  Castberg,  president  of  the 
Odelsting  (one  of  the  two  coordinate  cham- 
bers), and  a  member  of  the  Norwegian  inter- 
parliamentar}^  group  ;  President  Jahren,  presi- 
dent of  the  Lagting;  President  Aarsbad,  presi- 
dent of  the  Storting  when  meeting  in  joint 
session;  and  Vice-President  Lo viand.  We 
were  interested  in  seeing  on  the  walls  the  por- 
trait of  the  first  woman  member  of  Parliament. 

At  a  committee  meeting  at  the  Nobel  In- 
stitute we  had  an  opportunit}^  to  discuss 
peace  programmes  with  Christian  Lange, 
secretary  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union. 

In  Stockholm,  whither  we  proceeded  at 
once,  we  had  a  very  interesting  interview  with 
Wallenberg,  the  foreign  minister.  He  is 
not  only  a  statesman  but  a  man  of  affairs 
and  a  great  banker,  and  appears  to  be  throw- 
ing all  his  weight  on  the  side  of  peace. 

Among  distinguished  Swedes  who  showed 


AT  THE  NORTHERN  CAPITALS       103 

their  sympathy  and  interest,  at  one  of  the 
meetings  arranged  for  us  we  were  proud  to 
number  Selma  Lagerlof, 

We  had  already  spent  over  a  fortnight 
upon  our  way  when,  on  the  evening  of  June  7, 
we  started  for  Russia.  At  this  point  we 
had  to  make  certain  changes.  Rosika 
Schwimmer,  being  technically  an  enemy, 
could  not  go  to  Russia,  and  in  her  stead  our 
Scandinavian  friends  chose  for  us  Baroness 
Ellen  Palmstierna.  Madam  Schwimmer,  re- 
turning, went  first  to  Denmark,  where  she 
took  part  in  the  great  procession  with  which 
the  Danish  women  celebrated  the  signing  of 
the  new  constitution  securing  equal  suffrage 
to  Denmark. 

The  usual  route  from  Stockholm  to  Petro- 
grad  is  across  the  narrow  seas  to  Abo  in 
Finland.  This  passage  is  now  closed  to 
travellers,  which  means  that  one  must  make 
a  railroad  journey  of  three  days  and  three 
nights  round  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia. 
We  had  been  told  that  this  journey  would  be 
very  hard  travelling,  but  we  did  not  find  it  so, 
although  we  were  glad  to  reach  the  Hotel 
Astoria  in  Petrograd  a  little  before  midnight 


104  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

on  June  lo.  We  stayed  here  an  unexpectedly 
long  time,  —  a  fortnight,  in  fact,  —  and  this 
gave  us  opportunity  to  see  much  of  this  fine 
and  interesting  capital,  filled  to-day  with 
Red  Cross  "lazarets"  and  with  wounded; 
a  clean,  orderly,  and  friendly  city,  as  we  ob- 
served it. 

Our  object  was  an  interview  with  SazonofF, 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  it  was  a 
memorable  experience  to  sit  for  nearly  an 
hour  in  conference  with  one  who  has  so  large 
a  part  in  the  making  of  history  in  this  tragic 
crisis.  He  appeared  to  be  already  familiar 
with  the  resolutions  passed  at  The  Hague, 
and  interested  to  consider  them  with  us. 

Our  return  trip  took  us,  on  practically  the 
longest  day  of  the  year,  to  the  farthest  point 
of  our  journey,  well  to  the  north  of  Arch- 
angel. Here,  although  in  the  vicissitudes  of 
woods  and  hills  we  could  not  command  the 
horizon,  we  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the 
sun  well  risen  before  twelve  minutes  after 
midnight.  It  was  probably  below  the  hori- 
zon a  scant  twenty  minutes. 

In  Stockholm  we  found  that  during  our 
absence   arrangements   had   been   completed 


AT  THE  NORTHERN  CAPITALS       105 

by  the  Swedish  women  for  a  wonderful  set 
of  simultaneous  peace  meetings.  In  three 
hundred  and  foity-three  places,  meetings 
were  held  on  Sunday,  June  27;  at  each  the 
same  speech  —  a  very  able  one  —  was  de- 
livered and  the  same  resolution  passed.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  of  its  being  a  season  when 
people  are  scattered  and  meetings  are  thought 
to  be  impracticable,  the  demonstration  which 
we  attended  gathered  perhaps  two  thousand 
people,  besides  an  overflow  of  some  twelve 
hundred,  while  eight  hundred  could  not  get 
in  at  all.  Yet  this  was  only  one  of  five  meet- 
ings in  Stockholm  alone.  The  resolution 
affirmed  the  main  resolutions  of  our  Hague 
Congress,  and  called  for  mediation. 

In  the  Scandinavian  countries  we  saw 
ministers  again  on  our  return  journey,  and 
in  Holland  we  had  further  interviews  with 
Minister  of  Foreign  Aff"airs  Louden  and  the 
prime  minister.  It  seemed  best  for  Rosika 
Schwimmer  and  Mme.  Ramondt  to  go  again 
to  Berlin,  and  for  Chrystal  Macmillan  and  me 
to  visit  London  before  I  should  return  to 
America  and  report  all  this  to  President 
Wilson,  as  has  now  been  done. 


io6  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

Our  London  fortnight  was  in  some  ways 
the  most  absorbing  of  all.  We  met  many 
interesting  people,  including  the  women  of 
our  own  British  Committee. 

We  saw,  too,  officers  of  the  National  Peace 
Council ;  and  of  the  League  of  Peace  and 
Freedom ;  the  chairman  of  the  conference 
upon  the  Pacifist  Philosophy  of  Life,  held  in 
London  in  July,  and  of  the  Fellowship  of 
Reconciliation ;  members  of  the  executive 
committee  of  the  Representative  Peace  Con- 
ference, convened  by  the  Society  of  Friends ; 
and  various  members  of  the  Union  of  Demo- 
cratic Control. 

We  met  many  others,  all  were  eager  to 
hear  of  our  undertaking,  and  with  one  or 
two  marked  exceptions,  all  were  in  their  own 
way  more  or  less  distinctly  pacifist  in  their 
outlook.  I  was  conscious  that  they  were 
far  from  reflecting  average  English  feehng; 
yet,  even  so,  what  a  testimony  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  English  hberty  of  thought  and  the 
breadth  of  English  humanism  were  their  keen 
and  generous  views  ! 

Two  groups  with  whom  I  did  not  come 
into  contact  were  the  Stop  the  War  Com- 


AT  THE  NORTHERN  CAPITALS       107 

mittee    and    the    No     Conscription    Fellow- 
ship. 

What  was  accomplished  by  the  Hague 
Congress  and  the  resulting  undertakings, 
what  their  significance,  is  something  that  we 
do  not  yet  fully  know,  ourselves.  Five 
things  stand  out  in  my  estimate  of  it  all : 

1.  The  noble  humanity  of  the  women  who 
gathered  at  The  Hague,  all  finding  firm  and 
common  ground  under  their  feet  even  in 
the  midst  of  the  war ; 

2.  The  well-wrought-out  platform; 

3.  The  permanent  international  pacifist 
organization  of  women,  now  effected  ; 

4.  A  plan  already  under  way  for  calling  a 
congress  of  these  women  at  the  time  and 
place  where  peace  terms  are  being  agreed 
on,  when  that  time  comes ; 

5.  The  mission  to  the  Governments,  in  its 
immediate  and  remoter  bearings. 

I  want  to  say  a  few  words  more  regarding 
these  last  three  points.  And  first  as  to 
permanent  organization  of  women's  work 
for  durable  peace.  The  new  international 
headquarters  at  467  Keizersgracht,  Amster- 
dam, are  but  the  symbol  of  the  organization 


io8  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

which  women  are  eagerly  forming  every- 
where. In  all  countries  national  groups 
of  the  International  Women's  Committee  for 
Permanent  Peace  are  being  organized  —  in 
France  (where  at  first  there  was  considerable 
misunderstanding  about  the  movement),  in 
Germany,  in  Hungary,  in  England,  in  the 
Scandinavian  countries,  and  in  Russia.  The 
American  office  is  the  national  headquarters 
of  the   Women's    Peace    Party   in    Chicago. 

Money  and  workers  are  needed  and 
America,  unstricken  by  war,  must  do  more 
than  its  share.  Its  fair  share,  even,  is  a 
large  one.  The  work  already  done  has 
cost  considerable  sums,  although  many  of 
the  delegates,  including  all  of  those  from  the 
United  States,  paid  all  their  own  travelling 
expenses  and  contributed  as  well  to  the 
general  expenses  of  the  Congress.  The 
future  offers  opportunity  for  still  larger 
investments. 

The  coming  Peace  Congress  of  women 
must  be  planned  and  financed.  This  is 
my  second  point.  Peace  negotiations  may 
come  early  and  unexpectedly  or,  alas,  they 
may  be  delayed   for  years;    but  sometime, 


AT  THE  NORTHERN  CAPITALS       109 

come  they  must.  And  then  the  women 
must  gather  to  note,  to  discuss,  and  to  urge 
terms  of  peace,  as  contrasted  with  terms  of 
a  short-sighted  armistice  based  on  log-rolling 
politics.  Professor  LaFontaine  of  Belgium 
said  to  me  recently  that  he  considered  the 
preparations  for  this  future  Congress,  which 
were  laid  at  The  Hague,  as  the  most  impor- 
tant part  of  our  work  there. 

Of  my  last  point,  the  mission  to  the 
Governments,  it  is  too  early  to  speak,  both 
because  the  work  is  confidential  and  can- 
not be  reported  and  because  it  is  still  in 
process.  However,  I  may  say  that  what 
was  planned  as  a  comparatively  formal 
presentation  of  the  resolutions  of  our  Con- 
gress developed  into  something  more  than 
this.  Never  again  must  women  dare  to 
believe  that  they  are  without  responsibility 
because  they  are  without  power.  Public 
opinion  is  power;  strong  and  reasonable 
feeling  is  power;  determination,  which  is  a 
twin  sister  of  faith  or  vision,  is  power. 
When  our  unaccustomed  representatives 
knocked  at  the  doors  of  the  Chancelleries  of 
Europe,    there    was    not    one    but   opened. 


no  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

They  were  received  gravely,  kindly,  perhaps 
gladly,  by  twenty-one  ministers,  the  presi- 
dents of  two  republics,  a  king,  and  the  Pope. 
All,  apparently,  recognized  without  argu- 
ment that  an  expression  of  the  public  opinion 
of  a  large  body  of  women  had  every  claim 
to  consideration  in  questions  of  war  anjd 
peace. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  TIME  FOR  MAKING  PEACE 
Emily  G.  Balch 

There  is  a  widespread  feeling  that  this  is 
not  the  moment  to  talk  of  a  European  peace. 
On  the  contrary,  if  we  look  into  the  matter 
more  deeply,  there  are  good  reasons  to  believe 
that  the  psychological  moment  is  very  close 
upon  us.  If,  in  the  wisdom  that  comes 
after  the  event,  we  see  that  the  United  States 
was  dilatory  when  it  might  have  helped  to 
open  the  way  to  end  bloodshed  and  to  make 
a  fair  and  lasting  settlement,  we  shall  have 
cause  for  deep  self-reproach. 

The  question  of  peace  is  a  question  of 
terms.  Every  country  desires  peace  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment,  if  peace  can  be 
had  on  what  it  regards  as  satisfactory  terms. 
Peace  is  possible  whenever  the  moment 
comes  when  each  side  would  accept  what 
the  other  side  would   grant,   but   from   the 

III 


112  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

international  or  human  point  of  view  a 
satisfactory  peace  is  possible  only  when  these 
claims  and  concessions  are  such  as  to  forward, 
not  to  hinder,  human  progress.  If  Ger- 
many's terms  are  the  annexation  of  Belgium 
and  part  of  France  and  a  military  hegemony 
over  the  rest  of  Europe,  or  if  the  terms  of 
France  or  England  include  "wiping  Germany 
off  the  map  of  Europe,"  then  there  is  no 
possibiHty  of  peace  at  this  time  or  at  any 
time  that  can  be  foreseen,  nor  does  the  world 
desire  peace  on  these  terms. 

In  each  country  there  are  those  that  want 
to  continue  the  fight  until  military  supremacy 
is  achieved,  in  each  there  are  powerful  forces 
that  seek  a  settlement  of  the  opposite  type, 
one  which  instead  of  containing  within 
itself  the  threats  to  international  stability 
that  are  involved  in  annexation,  humiliation 
of  the  enemy,  and  competition  between  arma- 
ments, shall  secure  national  independence 
and  respect  for  rights  of  minorities,  and 
foster  international  cooperation. 

In  one  sense  the  present  war  is  a  war 
between  the  two  great  sets  of  belligerent 
powers,    in    another    and    more    significant 


THE  TIME  FOR  MAKING  PEACE     113 

sense,  it  is  a  struggle  between  two  conceptions 
of  national  policy.  The  catchwords  im- 
perialism and  democracy  indicate  briefly 
the  two  opposing  ideas.  In  every  country 
both  are  represented,  though  in  varying  pro- 
portions, and  in  every  country  there  is  a 
strife  between  them. 

The  overriding  of  the  regular  civil  govern- 
ment by  the  military  authorities  in  all  the 
warring  countries  is  one  of  the  too  little 
understood  efi^ects  of  the  war.  The  forms 
of  constitutionalism  may  be  undisturbed 
but  as  inter  arma  leges  silent  so  military  power 
tends  to  control  the  representatives  of  the 
people  none  the  less  really  because  unob- 
trusively. Von  Tirpitz,  Kitchener,  JofFre, 
the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  have  tended  to 
overshadow  their  nominal  rulers. 

Another  effect  of  war  is  that  as  between 
the  two  contending  voices,  one  is  presented 
with  a  megaphone  and  the  other  is  muffled 
if  not  gagged.  Papers  and  platforms  are 
open  to  "patriotic"  utterances  as  patriotism 
is  understood  by  the  jingoes;  the  moderate 
is  silenced  not  alone  by  the  censor,  not 
alone  by  social  pressure,  but  by  his  own  sense 


114  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

of  the  effect  abroad  of  all  that  gives  an  im- 
pression of  internal  division  and  a  readiness 
to  quit  the  fight.  In  our  own  country 
during  the  tension  with  Germany  loyal 
Americans  who  believe  that  the  case  of 
the  United  States  is  not  a  strong  one  (and  a 
hundred  miUion  people  cannot  all  think  alike 
on  such  an  issue),  those  who  loathe  the  idea 
of  going  to  war  cannot  and  will  not  seek  any 
commensurate  expression  of  their  views  for 
fear  this  may  make  it  harder  for  our  Govern- 
ment to  induce  Germany  to  render  her  naval 
warfare  less  inhuman. 

Thus  everywhere  war  gives  an  exaggerated 
influence  to  mihtaristic  and  jingo  forces  and 
creates  a  false  impression  of  the  pressure  for 
extreme  terms  as  a  basis  of  settlement. 

Each  side,  of  course,  would  like  to  make 
peace  when  the  struggle,  which  is  in  a  rough 
general  sense  a  stalemate,  is  marked  by  some 
incident  favorable  to  itself.  Germany  would 
like  to  make  peace  from  the  crest  of  the  wave 
of  her  invasion  of  Russia;  Russia  and  Eng- 
land from  a  conquered  Constantinople,  If 
the  disinterested  neutrals,  who  alone  are 
free  to  act  for  peace,  wait  for  the  moment 


THE  TIME  FOR  MAKING  PEACE     115 

when  neither  side  has  any  advantage,  they 
will  wait  long  indeed.  The  minor  ups  and 
downs  of  the  war  are  shifting  and  unpredict- 
able, but  their  importance  is  much  less  than 
it  appears.  The  gains  that  either  makes  are 
as  nothing  to  its  losses.  The  grim  unques- 
tioned permanent  fact,  which  affects  both 
sides  and  which  is  to  the  changing  fortunes 
of  battle  as  the  miles  of  immovable  ocean 
depths  are  to  the  waves  on  its  surface,  — 
this  all-outweighing  fact  is  the  intolerable 
burden  of  continued  war. 

This  fact  is  that  which  makes  a  momentary 
advantage  comparatively  unimportant.  All 
the  belligerents  want  peace;  though  they 
none  of  them  want  it  enough  to  cry  "I 
surrender,"  they  all  want  it  enough  to  be 
ready  to  treat. 

The  making  of  peace  involves  not  only 
the  questions  of  the  character  of  the  terms, 
of  demands  more  or  less  extreme  —  it  also 
involves  the  question  of  the  principle  accord- 
ing to  which  settlements  are  to  be  made. 
Here  too  there  are  two  conflicting  concep- 
tions. 

On  the  one  hand  there  is  the  assumption 


Il6  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

that  military  advantage  must  be  represented 
quid  pro  quo  in  the  terms,  —  so  much  vic- 
tory, so  much  corresponding  advantage  in 
the  terms.  There  is  even  the  commercial 
conception  of  war  as  an  investment  and 
the  idea  that  the  fighter  has  a  right  to  in- 
demnity for  what  he  has  spent. 

On  the  other  hand,  starting  from  the  fact 
that  the  war  has  thrown  certain  international 
adjustments  into  the  melting  pot,  the  prob- 
lem is  to  create  a  new  adjustment  such  as 
on  the  whole  shall  be  as  generally  satisfac- 
tory and  contain  as  much  promise  of  sta- 
bility as  possible. 

The  gains  won  by  force  have  no  claims  that 
any  one  is  bound  to  respect.  The  expendi- 
ture of  blood  and  treasure  is  no  basis  for  a 
demand  for  reimbursement,  no  one  has  con- 
tracted to  render  any  return  for  it,  and  it  is 
to  the  general  interest  that  such  expenditure, 
undertaken  on  speculation,  should  never 
prove  a  good  investment.  Admitting  these 
things,  yet  since  the  arbitrament  of  war  is 
an  arbitrament  of  force,  this  fact  is  bound  to 
tell  in  the  resulting  adjustment.  But  a 
fact  that  it  is  important  to  understand  is 


THE  TIME  FOR  MAKING  PEACE     117 

that  with  a  given  balance  of  relative  strength 
as  between  the  two  sides,  an  equiHbrium  may 
be  reached  in  more  than  one  way,  as  there 
are  equations  which  admit  of  more  than  one 
solution.  The  equilibrium  of  peace  might 
be  secured  by  balancing  unjust  acquisition 
against  unjust  acquisition  or  by  balancing 
magnanimous  concession  against  magnani- 
mous concession. 

A  mediator  or  mediating  group,  without 
throwing  any  weight  into  the  scale  of  one 
or  the  other  side,  can  help  to  find  the  equi- 
librium on  the  higher  rather  than  the  lower 
level.  We  find  a  parallel  in  the  economic 
sphere  when  there  is  a  choice  between  a 
balance  based  on  low  wages  and  low  efficiency 
and  one  based  on  high  wages  and  high 
efficiency  and  when  the  state,  not  interfering 
with  the  economic  balance,  yet  helps  to 
secure  that  balance  by  the  socially  desirable 
method. 

On  the  basis  of  military  advantage  or  on 
the  basis  of  military  costs  the  neutrals  have 
no  claim  to  be  heard  in  the  settlement. 
The  soldier  is  genuinely  aggrieved  and 
outraged  that  they  should  mix  in  the  matter 


Ii8  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

at  all.  Yet,  even  on  the  plane  of  fighting 
power,  unexhausted  neutrals  are  capable  of 
throwing  a  sword  into  the  scale  and  on  the 
plea  of  costs  suffered  they  have  good  claim 
to  a  voice.  It  is  however  as  representatives 
of  civilization  and  the  true  interests  of  all 
sides  alike,  that  those  who  have  not  been  in 
the  thick  of  the  conflict  can  and  should  be  of 
use  in  the  settlement  and  help  to  fix  it  on 
the  higher  plane. 

The  settlement  of  a  war  by  outsiders  — 
not  their  mere  friendly  cooperation  in  finding 
acceptable  terms  —  is  something  that  has 
often  occurred,  exhibiting  that  curious  mix- 
ture of  the  crassest  brute  force  with  the 
most  ambitious  idealism  which  frequently 
characterizes  the  conduct  of  international 
dealings.  The  fruits  of  victory  were  refused 
to  Russia  by  the  Congress  of  Berlin  in  1878, 
Europe  recently  denied  to  Japan  the  spoils  of 
her  war  with  China,  the  results  of  the  Balkan 
wars  were  largely  determined  by  those  who 
had  done  none  of  the  fighting.  While  mere 
physical  might  played  a  large  part  in  such 
interferences  from  the  outside,  there  is  some- 
thing besides  hypocrisy  in  the  claim  of  the 


THE  TIME  FOR  MAKING  PEACE     119 

statesmen  of  countries  which  had  taken  no 
part  in  a  war  to  speak  on  behalf  of  freedom, 
progress,  and  peace. 

A  peace  involving  annexation  of  unwilling 
peoples  could  never  be  a  lasting  one.  The 
widespread  sense  of  irritation  at  all  talk  of 
peace  at  present  seems  to  be  due  to  a  feeling 
that  a  settlement  now  would  be  a  settlement 
which  would  leave  Belgium,  if  not  part  of 
France,  in  German  hands.  Such  a  settle- 
ment would  be  as  disastrous  to  Germany  as 
to  any  nation.  It  might  put  an  end  to 
military  operations,  but  it  certainly  would 
not  bring  peace,  if  we  give  any  moral  content 
to  that  much-abused  word.  Europe  was  not 
at  peace  before  August,  191 4,  nor  Poland  for 
long  before,  nor  Ireland,  nor  Alsace,  nor 
Finland.  Any  community  which,  if  it  could, 
would  fight  to  change  its  political  status 
may  be  quiet  under  coercion,  but  it  is  not  at 
peace.  Neither  would  Europe  be  at  peace 
with  Germany  in  Belgium. 

The  question  is,  then,  what  sort  of  peace 
may  we  hope  for  now  —  on  what  terms,  on 
what  principles  ^ 

We  may  be  sure  that  each  side  is  ready  to 


I20  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

concede  more  and  to  demand  less  than  ap- 
pears on  the  surface  or  than  it  is  ready  to 
advertise.  The  summer  campaign,  in  which 
marked  advantages  are  most  likely,  once 
over,  the  beUigerents  are  faced  with  a  winter 
in  the  trenches  which  will  cost  on  all  sides, 
in  money  and  in  suffering,  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  gains  that  can  be  hoped  for. 
It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  ad- 
vantages hitherto  won  are  not  all  on  one  side, 
but  that  each  side  has  something  to  concede. 
The  British  annexations  of  Egypt  and  Cyprus 
may  be  formal  rather  than  substantial 
changes,  but  the  conquest  of  Germany's 
colonies,  large  and  small,  Southwest  Africa, 
Togo  Land,  Samoa,  Neu-Pommern,  Kaiser 
Wilhelm's  Land,  the  Solomon,  Caroline, 
and  Marshall  islands,  to  say  nothing  of 
Kiao-Chao  —  and  probably  Russian  gains 
at  the  expense  of  Turkey  in  the  East,  give 
bargaining  power  to  the  allies.  So,  even 
without  success  in  the  Dardanelles,  does  their 
ability  to  thwart  or  forward  German  enter- 
prise in  Asia  Minor  and  Mesopotamia  or 
possibly  in  purchasable  parts  of  Africa  or 
elsewhere.     Friends  of  Finland  and  of  Poland 


THE  TIME  FOR  MAKING  PEACE     121 

must  see  to  it  that  the  debatable  lands  of 
the  Eastern  as  well  as  of  the  Western  front 
are  kept  in  mind.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  Poland  the  main  thing  to  be  desired  is 
the  union  of  the  three  dismembered  parts  — 
Russian,  German,  and  Austrian  Poland  — 
and  their  fusion  in  some  sort  of  a  buffer 
state,  independent  or  at  least  essentially 
autonomous.  Something  like  this  appears 
to  be  the  purpose  of  both  Germany  and 
Russia,  with  the  difference  that  this  Polish 
state  would  be  in  the  one  case  under  Teu- 
tonic, in  the  other  under  Russian  auspices. 
No  one  knows,  as  between  the  two,  which 
would  be  the  choice  of  the  majority  of  the 
Poles  concerned.  Concessions  to  Germany 
in  Finland  and  in  Poland,especially  if  coupled 
with  adequate  security  from  nationalistic 
oppression,  might  prove  to  be  in  the  ultimate 
interest  of  European  peace,  and  would  render 
it  easier  for  Germany  to  make  the  concession 
on  her  side  of  complete  withdrawal  in  the 
West.  Very  important  too  are  the  con- 
cessions in  regard  to  naval  control  of  the 
seas  that  Great  Britain  ought  to  be  willing 
to  make  if  the  safety  of  her  commerce  and 


122  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

her  intercolonial  communications  could  be 
secured  otherwise,  and  this  would  seem  to 
be  the  natural  counterpart  of  substantial 
steps  toward  disarmament  on  land. 

But  all  this  is  speculation.  The  fact, 
obvious  to  those  who  look  below  the  surface, 
is  that  every  beUigerent  power  is  carrying  on 
a  war  deadly  to  itself,  that  bankruptcy 
looms  ahead,  that  industrial  revolt  threatens, 
not  at  the  moment  but  in  a  none  too  distant 
future,  that  racial  stocks  are  being  irreparably 
depleted.  The  prestige  of  Europe,  of  the 
Christian  Church,  of  the  white  race,  is 
lowered  inch  by  inch  with  the  progress  of 
the  struggle  which  is  continually  closer  to 
the  debacle  of  a  civilization. 

Each  power  would  best  like  peace  on  its 
own  terms,  although  our  common  civiliza- 
tion would  suffer  by  the  imposition  of  ex- 
treme terms  by  any  power.  Each  power 
would  be  thankful  indeed  to  secure  an 
early  peace  without  humihation  on  terms 
a  long  way  short  of  its  extreme  demands. 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  a  vig- 
orous initiative  by  representatives  of  the 
neutral   powers  of  the  world   could   at  this 


THE  TIME  FOR  MAKING  PEACE     123 

moment  begin  a  move  toward  negotiations, 
and  lead  the  way  to  a  settlement  which,  please 
God,  shall  be  a  step  toward  a  nobler  and 
more  intelligent  civilization  than  we  have 
yet  enjoyed. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM 
Jane  Add  am  s 

The  group  of  women  from  five  of  the 
European  nations  who,  under  the  leadership 
of  Dr.  Aletta  Jacobs  of  Amsterdam,  con- 
vened the  International  Congress  of  Women 
at  The  Hague,  were  confident  that  although 
none  of  the  existing  international  associations 
had  met  since  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
the  women,  including  those  from  the  bellig- 
erent nations,  would  be  able  to  come  to- 
gether in  all  sobriet}"  and  friendliness  to 
discuss  their  common  aims  and  the  perilous 
stake  they  all  held  in  the  war. 

The  women  who  attended  the  Congress 
from  the  warring  countries  came  from  home 
at  a  moment  when  the  individual,  through 
his  own  overwhelming  patriotism,  fairly 
merges  his  personal  welfare,  his  convictions, 
almost  his  sense    of  identity,  into   the   na- 

124 


WOMEN  AND   INTERNATIONALISM      125 

tional  consciousness.  It  is  a  precious  mo- 
ment in  human  experience,  almost  worth  the 
price  of  war,  but  it  made  the  journey  of 
the  women  leaving  home  to  attend  the 
Congress  Uttle  short  of  an  act  of  heroism. 
Even  to  appear  to  differ  from  those  she 
loves  in  the  hour  of  their  affliction  has  ever 
been  the  supreme  test  of  a  woman's  con- 
science. 

For  the  women  who  came  from  neutral 
nations  there  were  also  great  difficulties. 
In  the  Scandinavian  countries  women  are 
enfranchised  and  for  long  months  had  been 
sensitive  to  the  unusual  international  con- 
ditions which  might  so  easily  jeopardize 
the  peace  of  a  neutral  nation  and  because 
in  a  large  Congress  an  exaggerated  word 
spoken,  or  reported  as  spoken,  might  easily 
make  new  complications,  they  too  took  risks 
and  made  a  moral  venture. 

The  fifteen  hundred  women  who  came  to 
the  Congress  in  the  face  of  such  difficulties 
must  have  been  impelled  by  some  profound 
and  spiritual  forces.  During  a  year  when 
the  spirit  of  internationalism  had  apparently 
broken  down,  they  came  together  to  declare 


126  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

the  validity  of  the  internationalism  which 
surrounds  and  completes  national  life,  even 
as  national  life  itself  surrounds  and  completes 
family  life;  to  insist  that  internationalism 
does  not  conflict  with  patriotism  on  one  side 
any  more  than  family  devotion  conflicts 
with  it  upon  the  other. 

In  the  shadow  of  the  intolerable  knowledge 
of  what  war  means,  revealed  so  minutely 
during  the  previous  months,  these  women 
also  made  solemn  protest  against  that  of 
which  they  knew.  The  protest  may  have 
been  feeble,  but  the  world  progresses,  in  the 
slow  and  halting  manner  in  which  it  does 
progress,  only  in  proportion  to  the  moral 
energy  exerted  by  the  men  and  women 
living  in  it;  advance  in  international  affairs, 
as  elsewhere,  must  be  secured  by  the  human 
will  and  understanding  united  for  conscious 
ends. 

The  delegates  to  the  Congress  were  not 
without  a  sense  of  complicity  in  the  war,  and 
so  aware  of  the  bloodshed  and  desolation 
surrounding  them  that  their  deliberations 
at  moments  took  on  the  solemn  tone  of 
those  who  talk   around  the   bedside  of  the 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM      127 

dying.  It  was  intimated  on  the  floor  of 
the  Congress  that  the  time  may  come  when 
the  exhausted  survivors  of  the  war  may 
well  reproach  women  for  their  inaction  during 
this  year.  It  is  possible  they  may  then  say 
that  when  a  perfervid  devotion  to  the  ideals 
of  patriotism  drove  thousands  of  men  into 
international  warfare,  the  women  refused 
to  accept  the  challenge  for  the  things  of  the 
spirit  and  in  that  moment  of  terror  they 
too  failed  to  assert  the  supreme  sanctity  of 
human  Hfe.  We  were  told  that  wounded 
lads,  lying  in  helpless  pain  and  waiting  too 
long  for  the  field  ambulance,  call  out  con- 
stantly for  their  mothers,  impotently  be- 
seeching them  for  help  ;  of  soldiers  who  say 
to  their  hospital  nurses  :  "We  can  do  nothing 
for  ourselves  but  go  back  to  the  trenches 
so  long  as  we  are  able.  Cannot  the  women 
do  something  about  this  war  .''  Are  you  kind 
to  us  only  when  we  are  wounded  .f"'  There 
is  no  one  else  to  whom  they  dare  so  speak, 
revealing  the  heart  of  the  httle  child  which 
each  man  carries  within  his  own  even  when 
it  beats  under  a  uniform. 

The    belief  that  a  woman  is  against  w^ar 


128  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

simply  because  she  is  a  woman  and  not  a  man 
cannot  of  course  be  substantiated.  In  every 
country  there  are  women  who  believe  that  war 
is  inevitable  and  righteous ;  the  majority  of 
women  as  well  as  men  in  the  nations  at 
war  doubtless  hold  that  conviction.  On  the 
other  hand,  quite  as  an  artist  in  an  artillery, 
corps  commanded  to  fire  upon  a  beautiful 
building  like  the  duomo  at  Florence  would 
be  deterred  by  a  compunction  unknown  to 
the  man  who  had  never  given  himself  to 
creating  beauty  and  did  not  know  the  inti- 
mate cost  of  it,  so  women,  who  have  brought 
men  into  the  world  and  nurtured  them  until 
they  reach  the  age  for  fighting,  must  ex- 
perience a  peculiar  revulsion  when  they 
see  them  destroj^ed,  irrespective  of  the 
country  in  which  these  men  may  have  been 
born. 

Perhaps  the  most  pathetic  women  we  met, 
either  at  the  Congress  or  later,  were  those 
who  had  sent  their  sons  and  husbands  into 
the  war,  having  themselves  ceased  to  beheve 
in  it.  I  remember  one  mother  who  said  : 
"Yes,  I  lost  my  son  in  the  first  three  months 
of  the  war  and  I  am  thankful  he  died  early 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM 


129 


before  he  harmed  the  son  of  any  other 
woman  called  an  enemy."  To  another 
woman,  who  as  well  as  her  husband  was  a 
pacifist,  I  said,  "It  must  be  hard  for  you  and 
your  husband  to  have  lost  a  son  in  battle," 
and  she  rephed  quickly:  "He  did  not  die  in 
battle,  I  am  happy  to  say  he  never  engaged 
in  battle.  He  died  of  blood  poisoning  in 
one  of  the  trenches,  but  we  have  reason  to 
believe  there  had  been  no  active  engagement 
where  he  was  stationed."  The  husband  of 
another  woman  had  gone  to  the  front,  telling 
her  that  under  no  circumstances  would  he 
be  driven  to  kill  a  fellowman.  One  night 
he  met  a  sentry  from  whom  she  believes 
he  might  have  defended  himself  but  he  lost 
his  life  rather  than  put  another  man  out  of 
existence. 

It  was  also  said  at  the  Congress  that  the 
appeals  for  the  organization  of  the  world 
upon  peaceful  lines  may  have  been  made  too 
exclusively  to  reason  and  a  sense  of  justice, 
that  reason  is  only  a  part  of  the  human 
endowment;  emotion  and  deep-set  racial 
impulses  must  be  utilized  as  well  —  those 
primitive  human  urgings  to  foster  life  and 


130  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

to  protect  the  helpless,  of  which  women 
were  the  earliest  custodians,  and  even  the 
social  and  gregarious  instincts  that  we  share 
with  the  animals  themselves.  These  uni- 
versal desires  must  be  given  opportunities 
to  expand  and  to  have  a  recognized  place 
in  the  formal  organization  of  international 
relations  which,  up  to  this  moment,  have 
rested  so  exclusively  upon  purely  legal  foun- 
dations in  spite  of  the  fact  that  international 
law  is  comparatively  undeveloped.  There 
is  an  international  commerce,  a  great  system 
of  international  finance,  and  many  other 
fields  in  which  relationships  are  not  yet  de- 
fined in  law,  quite  as  many  of  our  most 
settled  national  customs  have  never  been 
embodied  in  law  at  all.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible to  adjudicate  certain  of  the  underlying 
economic  and  social  causes  of  this  war  ac- 
cording to  existing  international  law  and 
this  might  therefore  make  more  feasible  the 
proposition  urged  by  the  Women's  Congress 
at  The  Hague,  of  a  conference  of  neutral 
nations  composed  of  men  who  have  had  in- 
ternational experience  so  long  and  so  un- 
consciously that  they  have  come  to  think 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM      131 

not  merely  in  the  terms  but  in  the  reaUties 
of  internationahsm  and  would  therefore 
readily  deal  with  the  economic  and  human 
element  involved  in  the  situation.  Such  a 
conference  would  represent  not  one  country 
or  another,  but  human  experience  as  it  has 
developed  during  the  last  decades  in  Europe. 
It  would  stand  not  for  "peace  at  any  price," 
but  would  seriously  and  painstakingl}'-  en- 
deavor to  discover  the  price  to  be  paid  for 
peace,  which  should  if  possible  be  permanent 
as  well  as  immediate.  The  neutral  nations 
might  well  say:  "Standing  outside,  as  we 
do,  refusing  to  judge  j^our  cause,  because 
that  must  be  left  to  the  verdict  of  history, 
we  beg  of  you  to  remember  that  as  life  is 
being  lived  at  this  moment  on  this  planet 
of  ours,  difficult  and  complicated  situations 
must  in  the  end  be  decided  and  adjudicated 
by  the  best  minds  and  the  finest  good  will 
that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them. 
We  who  are  outside  of  this  fury  of  fighting 
agree  that  you  have  all  proven  your  valor, 
you  have  demonstrated  the  splendor  of 
patriotism  and  of  united  action,  but  we  beg 
of  you,  in  the  name  of  the  humane  values  of 


132  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

life,  in  the  name  of  those  spiritual  bonds  you 
once  venerated,  to  allow  us  to  bring  in  some 
other  method  for  ending  the  conflict.  We 
believe  that  only  through  help  from  the  out- 
side will  this  curious  spell  be  broken.  Great 
and  wonderful  as  the  war  has  been  in 
certain  aspects,  it  cannot  commend  itself 
to  the  people  of  neutral  nations  who  are  striv- 
ing to  look  at  life  rationally.  It  is  certainly 
possible  to  give  powers  of  negotiation  to  some 
body  of  men  who,  without  guile  and  without 
personal  or  nationalistic  ambitions,  will  bend 
their  best  energies  to  the  task  of  adjudica- 
tion." 

A  survey  of  the  situation  from  the  humane 
and  social  standpoint  would  consider  for  in- 
stance the  necessity  of  feeding  those  people 
in  the  southeast  portion  of  Europe  who  are 
pitifully  underfed  when  there  is  a  shortage 
of  crops,  in  relation  to  the  possession  of  warm- 
water  harbors  which  would  enable  Russia 
to  send  them  her  great  stores  of  wheat. 
Such  harbors  would  be  considered  not  in 
their  political  significance,  as  when  the  block- 
ade of  the  Bosphorus  during  the  Tripolis 
War  put   a  stop  to  the  transport  of  crops 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM      133 

from  Odessa  to  the  Mediterranean,  not  from 
a  point  of  view  of  the  claims  of  Russia  nor 
the  counterclaims  of  some  other  nation,  but 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  needs  of  Europe. 
If  men  of  such  temper,  experience,  and 
understanding  of  life  were  to  make  proposi- 
tions to  the  various  Governments,  not  in 
order  to  placate  the  claims  of  one  nation 
and  to  balance  them  against  the  claims  of 
another,  but  from  the  human  standpoint, 
there  is  little  doubt  but  that  the  international 
spirit  would  again  reassert  itself  and  might 
eventually  obtain  a  hearing.  If  the  purely 
legaHstic  aspects  were  not  overstressed,  such 
a  raising  of  the  international  standard  would 
doubtless  be  reenforced  in  ma,ny  ways. 
For  centuries  Europe  has  not  been  without 
a  witness  to  the  spiritual  unity  of  nations. 
Pope  Benedict  XV,  who  gave  our  delega- 
tion an  audience  of  half  an  hour,  and  Cardinal 
Gaspari,  in  an  extended  interview,  made  it 
evident  that  the  men  with  rehgious  re- 
sponsibility fear  keenly  the  results  of  this 
war;  while  the  statesmen  see  in  it  a  throw- 
back to  civilization,  the  great  international 
Church  views  it  as  a  breeder  of  animosities 


134  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

which   will   tear   down    and    rend   to   pieces 
the  work  of  years. 

We  also  met  in  several  countries  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Protestant  Churches  organized 
into  World  Alliances  or  International  Friend- 
ships, and  countless  individuals  who  could 
scarcely  brook  the  horror  of  Jew  fighting 
against  Jew,  Christian  against  Christian. 

The  International  Congress  of  Women 
at  The  Hague  passed  a  resolution  to  hold  a 
meeting  "in  the  same  place  and  at  the  same 
time  as  the  Conference  of  the  Powers  which 
shall  frame  the  terms  of  the  peace  settlement 
after  the  war,  for  the  purpose  of  presenting 
practical  proposals  to  that  Conference."  ^ 
We  recalled  the  fact  that  at  the  Congress 
of  Vienna,  held  in  1815,  in  addition  to  de- 
termining by  treaty  the  redistribution  of 
the  territory  conquered  by  Napoleon,  the 
slave  trade  was  denounced  and  declared  to 
be  "contrary  to  the  principles  of  civilization 
and  human  rights,"  although  of  course  the 

1  The  reader  is  referred  to  the  official  report  of  the  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Women  at  The  Hague  for  a  fuller  account 
of  this  resolution  and  the  organization  already  effected  for 
carrying  out  its  provisions. 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM     135 

abolition  of  slavery  was  a  matter  for  each 
state  to  determine  for  itself. 

Within  the  borders  of  every  country  at  war 
there  is  released  a  vast  amount  of  idealism, 
without  which  war  could  never  be  carried  on ; 
a  fund  which  might  still  be  drawn  upon  when 
the  time  for  settlement  arrives.  If  the  peo- 
ple knew  that  through  final  negotiations 
Europe  would  be  so  remade  and  internation- 
alized that  further  wars  would  be  impossible, 
many  of  them  would  feel  that  the  death 
of  thousands  of  young  men  had  not  been 
in  vain,  that  the  youth  of  our  generation 
had  thus  contributed  to  the  inauguration  of 
a  new  era  in  human  existence.  It  is,  there- 
fore, both  because  of  the  precedent  in  181 5 
and  at  other  times  of  peace  negotiations 
when  social  reforms  have  been  considered, 
and  because  idealism  runs  high  in  the  warring 
nations,  that  the  women  in  the  Hague 
Congress  considered  it  feasible  to  urge  a 
declaration  that  "the  exclusion  of  women 
from  citizenship  is  contrar}^  to  the  principles 
of  civilization  and  human  right,"  as  one  of 
the  fundamental  measures  embodied  in  their 
resolutions  for  permanent  peace. 


136  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

But  perhaps  our  hopes  for  such  action 
are  founded  chiefly  upon  the  fact  that  the 
settlement  at  the  end  of  this  war  may 
definitely  recognize  a  fundamental  change  in 
the  functions  of  government  taking  place  in 
all  civilized  nations,  a  change  evoked  as  the 
result  of  concrete,  social,  and  economic 
conditions,  approximating  similarity  all  over 
the  world.  The  recent  entrance  of  women 
into  citizenship  coming  on  so  rapidly  not 
only  in  the  nations  of  Europe  and  America, 
but  discernible  in  certain  Asiatic  nations  as 
well,  is  doubtless  one  manifestation  of  this 
change,  and  the  so-called  radical  or  progres- 
sive element  in  each  nation,  whether  they 
like  it  or  not,  recognize  it  as  such.  Never- 
theless, there  are  men  in  each  of  these 
countries  even  among  those  who  would 
grant  the  franchise  to  women  in  city  and 
state,  to  whom  it  is  still  repugnant  that 
women  should  evince  an  interest  in  interna- 
tional affairs.  These  men  argue  that  a 
woman's  municipal  vote  may  be  cast  for 
the  regulation  of  contagious  diseases,  her 
state  vote  for  protection  of  working  children, 
and  that  war  no  longer  obtains  between  cities 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM     137 

or  even  between  states ;  but  because  war 
is  still  legitimate  in  settling  international 
difficulties,  and  because  international  re- 
lations are  so  much  a  matter  of  fortified 
boundaries  and  standing  armies,  that  it  is 
preposterous  for  women  who  cannot  fight, 
to  consider  them.  Furthermore,  when  war 
was  practically  man's  sole  occupation,  no 
one  had  a  voice  in  the  deliberations  of  the 
nation  save  those  responsible  for  its  defence, 
the  king,  the  nobles,  the  knights.  In  the 
succeeding  centuries,  as  other  tests  of  social 
utility  have  been  developed  and  the  primitive 
test  of  fighting  has  subsided,  the  electorate 
has  been  steadily  enlarged,  the  bourgeoisie, 
the  working  man,  and  last  the  woman,  each 
group  largely  following  its  own  interests  as 
government  took  them  over,  —  the  regula- 
tion of  commercial  relations,  of  industrial 
conditions,  of  the  health  and  education  of 
children.  Only  in  time  of  war  is  government 
thrown  back  to  its  primitive  and  sole  func- 
tion of  self-defence,  belittling  for  the  mo- 
ment the  many  other  real  interests  of  which 
it  is  the  guardian.  War  moreover  has  always 
treated  the  lives  of  men  and  women  broadly, 


138  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

as  a  landscape  painter  who  suppresses  all 
details  —  "The  man  bold,  combative,  con- 
quering; woman  sympathetic,  heahng  the 
wounds  that  war  has  made." 

But  because  this  primitive  conception  of 
the  function  of  government  and  of  the  ob- 
solete division  between  the  lives  of  men  and 
women  has  obtained  during  the  long  months 
of  the  European  war,  there  is  obviously  great 
need  at  the  end  of  the  war  that  women 
should  attempt,  in  an  organized  capacity, 
to  make  their  contribution  to  that  govern- 
mental internationaUsm  between  the  nations 
which  shall  in  some  measure  approximate 
the  genuine  internationahsm  already  devel- 
oped in  so  many  directions  among  the 
peoples.  In  normal  times,  moreover,  all 
modern  Governments  with  any  Hving  relation 
to  the  great  developments  in  commerce, 
industry,  sanitary  science,  or  a  dozen  other 
aspects  of  contemporary  life,  are  coming  to 
realize  that  the  current  type  of  government 
implies  the  frequent  subordination  of  an 
isolated  nationalism  to  general  interna- 
tional interests.  It  is  hoped  that  this  new 
approach     to     international     relationships, 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM     139 

typified  by  the  international  postal  system 
and  a  hundred  other  semi-governmental 
regulations,  will  be  vital  enough  to  assert  it- 
self at  the  end  of  this  war  as  over  against  the 
militaristic  and  "armed  peace"  relationships. 

An  organized  and  formal  effort  on  the 
part  of  women  would  add  but  one  more 
to  that  long  procession  of  outstanding  wit- 
nesses who  in  each  generation  have  urged 
juster  and  more  vital  international  relations 
between  Governments.  Each  exponent  in 
this  long  effort  to  place  law  above  force 
was  called  a  dreamer  and  a  coward,  but  each 
did  his  utmost  to  express  clearly  the  truth 
that  was  in  him,  and  beyond  that  human 
effort  cannot  go. 

This  tide  of  endeavor  has  probably  never 
been  so  full  as  at  the  present  moment. 
Religious,  social,  and  economic  associations, 
many  of  them  organized  since  the  war  began, 
are  making  their  contributions  to  the  same 
great  end.  Several  of  them  are  planning  to 
meet  at  "the  Conference  of  the  Powers 
which  shall  frame  the  terms  of  the  peace 
settlement  after  this  war,"  and  such  meetings 
are  not  without  valuable  precedent. 


I40  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

A  federation  or  a  council  of  European 
powers  should  not  be  considered  impossible 
from  the  very  experience  of  the  nations  now 
at  war.  The  German  Empire,  Consolidated 
Italy,  or  the  United  Kingdom  have  been 
evolved  from  separate  states  which  had 
previously  been  at  war  with  each  other  during 
centuries;  the  response  to  the  call  of  im- 
perialistic England,  during  the  last  months, 
for  more  troops  has  shown  that  patriotic 
emotion  can  be  extended  to  include  the  Boers 
of  South  Africa  and  the  natives  of  India; 
certain  of  these  great  federated  states  and 
empires  have  again  formed  alliances  with 
each  other  and  are  fighting  together  against 
a  common  enemy. 

Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  the  good  will 
and  the  consciousness  of  common  aims  and 
responsibilities  can  be  extended  to  include 
all  the  European  nations  and  that  devices  for 
international  government  can  be  provided, 
able  to  deal  in  the  interests  of  the  whole  with 
each  difficult  situation  as  it  arises.?  The 
very  experience  of  this  war  should  demon- 
strate its  feasibility  and  the  analogy  inev- 
itably suggests   itself  that  as   the  states  of 


WOMEN  AND  INTERNATIONALISM     141 

Germany  and  Italy  came  together  under  the 
pressure  of  war,  possibly  this  larger  feder- 
ation may  be  obtained  under  the  same  sense 
of  united  effort. 

Out  of  the  present  situation,  which  certainly 
"presents  the  spectacle  of  the  breakdown  of 
the  whole  philosophy  of  nationalism,  politi- 
cal, racial,  and  cultural,"  may  conceivably 
issue  a  new  birth  of  internationalism,  founded 
not  so  much  upon  arbitration  treaties,  to  be 
used  in  time  of  disturbance,  as  upon  govern- 
mental devices  designed  to  protect  and  en- 
hance the  fruitful  processes  of  cooperation 
in  the  great  experiment  of  living  together  in 
a  world  become  conscious  of  itself. 


APPENDIX   I 
OPINIONS  OF  THE  CONGRESS 


(( 


'.  .  .  The  deliberations  of  the  Congress  of 
Women  at  The  Hague  was  the  appeal  away 
from  passion  and  insane  hatred  to  balance  of 
judgment  and  to  truth  inspired  by  reason. 

"A  visitor  who  sat  in  the  gallery  was  impressed 
by  the  similarity  in  personality  and  dress  of  the 
delegates  who  occupied  the  body  of  the  hall. 
There  was  nothing  in  general  appearance  to 
distinguish  one  nationality  from  another,  and 
looking  into  our  own  hearts  we  beheld  as  in  a 
mirror  the  hearts  of  all  those  who  were  assembled 
with  us,  because  deep  in  our  own  hearts  lies  the 
common  heart  of  humanity.  We  realised  that 
the  fear  and  mistrust  that  had  been  fostered 
between  the  peoples  of  the  nations  was  an  il- 
lusion. We  discovered  that  at  the  bottom  peace 
was  nothing  more  or  less  than  communal  love. 
There  could  be  nothing  negative  in  the  idea  of 
peace.  War  is  the  negative.  Peace  is  the  high- 
est effort  of  the  human  brain  applied  to  the 
organisation  of  the  life  and  being  of  the  peoples 
of  the   world   on    the   basis   of  cooperation.     It 

143 


144  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

cannot  be  secured  with  treaties  or  maintained 
by  armaments;  it  must  be  founded  ultimately 
on  the  public  opinion  of  enlightened  and  free 
democracies  knit  together  by  organised  associa- 
tion in  common  ideals  and  common  enterprises. 

"It  was  to  the  furtherance  of  such  an  ideal 
that  the  representatives  of  the  Women's  Con- 
gress pledged  their  strenuous  and  passionate 
endeavour. 

"London. 

"Emmeline  Pethick  Lawrence." 


"It  seems  ludicrous  to  imagine  that  there  is 
one  woman  in  the  world  presumptuous  enough 
to  believe  that  an  international  women's  con- 
gress could  end  this  maddest  of  all  wars.  What 
did  we  intend  then  ?  I  hear  our  opponents  ask. 

"To  protest  against  the  useless  destruction  of 
the  highest  fruits  of  civilisation. 

"To  protest  against  this  human  slaughter. 

"To  protest  against  the  mad  national  hatred. 

"To  protest  against  the  war  and  all  its  ac- 
companiment. 

"To  protest  not  only  with  words,  but  with 
deeds;    and  this  Congress  was  a  deed.  .  .  . 

"But  what  did  the  Congress  give  to  those  of 


APPENDIX  I  145 

us  who  took  part  in  it  ?  I  cannot  know  what 
it  gave  to  others,  only  what  it  gave  to  me  per- 
sonally. The  days  in  The  Hague  were  a  rest 
after  months  of  anguish  —  a  rest  amongst  those 
who  felt  the  same.  The  days  in  The  Hague 
gave  me  an  answer  to  the  question  which  I  had 
asked  myself  since  the  outbreak  of  war  in  anxious 
days  and  weary  nights :  Where  are  the  women  ? 
They  were  here !  united  in  energetic  protest, 
penetrated  with  warm  humanity,  inspired  by 
one  thought  —  to  do  their  duty  as  wives  and 
mothers,  to  protect  life,  to  fight  against  national 
hatred,  to  guard  civilisation,  to  further  justice 
—  justice  not  only  for  their  own  country,  but 
for  all  countries  of  the  world.  The  days  in  The 
Hague  gave  fresh  courage  for  new  activity. 
"Munich. 

"LiDA    GUSTAVA    HeYMANN." 


APPENDIX  II 

SOME   PARTICULARS  ABOUT  THE 
CONGRESS 

How  THE  Congress  was  Called 

The  scheme  of  an  International  Congress  of 
Women  was  formulated  at  a  small  conference 
of  Women  from  neutral  and  belligerent  countries, 
held  at  Amsterdam,  early  in  Febr.  1915.  A 
preliminary  programme  was  drafted  at  this 
meeting,  and  it  was  agreed  to  request  the  Dutch 
Women  to  form  a  Committee  to  take  in  hand 
all  the  arrangement  for  the  Congress  and  to 
issue  the  invitations. 

Finance 

The  expenses  of  the  Congress  were  guaranteed 
by  British,  Dutch  and  German  Women  present 
who  all  agreed  to  raise  one  third  of  the  sum 
required. 

Membership 

Invitations  to  take  part  in  the  Congress  were 
sent  to  women's  organisations  and  mixed  or- 
ganisations  as  well   as  to  individual  women   all 

146 


APPENDIX  II  147 

over  the  world.     Each  organisation  was  invited 
to  appoint  two  delegates. 

Women  only  could  become  members  of  the 
Congress  and  they  were  required  to  express 
themselves  in  general  agreement  with  the  resolu- 
tions on  the  preliminary  programme.  This 
general  agreement  was  interpreted  to  imply 
the  conviction  a.  That  international  disputes 
should  be  settled  by  pacific  means;  b.  That 
the  parliamentary  franchise  should  be  extended 
to  women. 

Conditions  of  Debate 

The  Congress  was  carried  on  under  two  im- 
portant rules : 

1.  That  discussions  on  the  relative  national 
responsibility  for  or  conduct  of  the  present  war, 

2.  Resolutions  dealing  with  the  rules  under 
which  war  shall  in  future  be  carried  on,  shall  be 
outside  the  scope  of  the  Congress. 

Countries  Represented 

The  United  States  of  America,  which  sent 
47  members;  Sweden,  which  sent  12;  Norway, 
12;  Netherlands,  1,000;  Italy,  i;  Hungary,  9; 
Germany,  28;  Denmark,  6;  Canada,  2;  Bel- 
gium,  5;    Austria,   6,   and   Great  Britain,  3,   al- 


148 


WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 


though  180  others  from  there  were  prevented 
from  saiHng  owing  to  the  closing  of  the  North 
Sea  for  military  reasons. 

The  Congress,  which  was  attended  by  a  large 
number  of  visitors  as  well  as  by  the  members, 
was  extremely  successful.  Proceedings  were  con- 
ducted with  the  greatest  goodwill  throughout, 
and  the  accompanying  resolutions  were  passed 
at  the  business  sessions. 


International  Committee  of  the  Congress 


Leop.  Kulka, 


Austria. 


Olga  Misar, 
Eugenie  Hamer, 
Marguerite  Sarten, 
Thora  Daugaard, 
Clara  Tybjerg,     j 
Dr.  Anita  Augspurg, 
LidaGustava  Heymann, 
Secretary  y  Interpreter, 
Chrystal  Macmillan, 
Secretary, 
Kathleen  Courtney, 
Interpreter, 

ViLMA  GlUCKLICH, 
ROSIKA  SCHWIMMER, 

Rose  Genoni,     Italy 


Belgium. 
[  Denmark. 


Germany. 


Great  Britain  and 
Ireland. 


Hungary. 


APPENDIX  II 


149 


Dr.  Aletta  Jacobs, 
Hanna  van  Biema-Hymans, 

Secretary, 
Dr.  Mia  Boissevain, 

Dr.  Emily  ARNESEN,|^^^^y 
Louisa  Keilhau,       J 
Anna  Kleman, 
Emma  Hansson, 


Netherlands. 


Sweden. 


Jane  Addams,  President,  j  ^   ^f^, 
Fannie  Fern  Andrews,  j 


APPENDIX  III 

Resolutions^  adopted  by  the  International 
Congress  of  Women  at  The  Hague,  May  i,  1915. 

I.  WOMEN  AND  WAR 

I.   Protest 

We  women,  in  International  Congress  as- 
sembled, protest  against  the  madness  and  the 
horror  of  war,  involving  as  it  does  a  reckless 
sacrifice  of  human  life  and  the  destruction  of  so 
much  that  humanity  has  laboured  through  cen- 
turies to  build  up. 

2.   Women's  Sufferings  in  War 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  opposes 
the  assumption  that  women  can  be  protected 
under  the  conditions  of  modern  warfare.  It  pro- 
tests vehemently  against  the  odious  wrongs  of 
which  women  are  the  victims  in  time  of  war,  and 
especially  against  the  horrible  violation  of  women 
which  attends  all  war. 

1  The  discussion  of  these  Resolutions  and  others  which 
were  not  carried  is  to  be  found  in  the  official  report  of  the 
International  Congress  of  Women  at  The  Hague. 

ISO 


APPENDIX  III  151 

II.  ACTION  TOWARDS   PEACE 
3.  The  Peace  Settlement 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  of 
different  nations,  classes,  creeds  and  parties  is 
united  in  expressing  sympathy  with  the  suffering 
of  all,  whatever  their  nationality,  who  are  fighting 
for  their  country  or  labouring  under  the  burden 
of  war. 

Since  the  mass  of  the  people  in  each  of  the 
countries  now  at  war  believe  themselves  to  be 
fighting,  not  as  aggressors  but  in  self-defence 
and  for  their  national  existence,  there  can  be  no  ir- 
reconcilable differences  between  them,  and  their 
common  ideals  afford  a  basis  upon  which  a  magnan- 
imous and  honourable  peace  might  be  established. 
The  Congress  therefore  urges  the  Governments  of 
the  world  to  put  an  end  to  this  bloodshed,  and 
to  begin  peace  negotiations.  It  demands  that 
the  peace  which  follows  shall  be  permanent  and 
therefore  based  on  principles  of  justice,  including 
those  laid  down  in  the  resolutions  ^  adopted  by 
this  Congress,  namely : 

That  no  territory  should  be  transferred  without 
the  consent  of  the  men  and  women  in  it,  and  that 
the  right  of  conquest  should  not  be  recognized. 

'  The  Resolutions  in  full  are  Nos.  5,  6,  7,  8,  9. 


152  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

That  autonomy  and  a  democratic  parliament 
should  not  be  refused  to  any  people. 

That  the  Governments  of  all  nations  should 
come  to  an  agreement  to  refer  future  international 
disputes  to  arbitration  or  conciliation  and  to 
bring  social,  moral  and  economic  pressure  to 
bear  upon  any  country  which  resorts  to  arms. 

That  foreign  politics  should  be  subject  to 
democratic  control. 

That  women  should  be  granted  equal  political 
rights  with  men. 

4.   Continuous  Mediation 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  re- 
solves to  ask  the  neutral  countries  to  take  im- 
mediate steps  to  create  a  conference  of  neutral 
nations  which  shall  without  delay  offer  continuous 
mediation.  The  Conference  shall  invite  sugges- 
tions for  settlement  from  each  of  the  belligerent 
nations  and  in  any  case  shall  submit  to  all  of  them 
simultaneously,  reasonable  proposals  as  a  basis 
of  peace. 

III.  PRINCIPLES  OF  A  PERMANENT  PEACE 

5.   Respect  for  Nationality 

This  International  Congress  of  Women,  recog- 
nizing the  right  of  the  people  to  self-government, 


APPENDIX  III  153 

affirms  that  there  should  be  no^  transference  of 
territory  without  the  consent  of  the  men  and 
women  residing  therein,  and  urges  that  autonomy 
and  a  democratic  parliament  should  not  be  re- 
fused to  any  people. 

6.   Arbitration  and  Conciliation 

This  International  Congress  of  Women,  believ- 
ing that  war  is  the  negation  of  progress  and  civili- 
sation, urges  the  governments  of  all  nations  to 
come  to  an  agreement  to  refer  future  international 
disputes  to  arbitration  and  conciliation. 

7.   International  Pressure 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  urges 
the  governments  of  all  nations  to  come  to  an 
agreement  to  unite  in  bringing  social,  moral  and 
economic  pressure  to  bear  upon  any  country, 
which  resorts  to  arms  instead  of  referring  its  case 
to  arbitration  or  conciliation. 

8.   Democratic  Control  of  Foreign  Policy 

Since  war  is  commonly  brought  about  not  by 
the  mass  of  the  people,  who  do  not  desire  it,  but 

*The  Congress  declared  by  vote  that  it  interpreted  no  trans- 
ference of  territory  without  the  consent  of  the  men  and 
women  in  it  to  imply  that  the  right  of  conquest  was  not  to 
be  recognized. 


154  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

by  groups  representing  particular  interests,  this 
International  Congress  of  Women  urges  that 
Foreign  Politics  shall  be  subject  to  Democratic 
Control;  and  declares  that  it  can  only  recognise 
as  democratic  a  system  which  includes  the  equal 
representation  of  men  and  women. 

9.   The  Enfranchisement  of  Women     ^ 

Since  the  combined  influence  of  the  women  of  all 
countries  is  one  of  the  strongest  forces  for  the  pre- 
vention of  war,  and  since  women  can  only  have 
full  responsibility  and  effective  influence  when 
they  have  equal  political  rights  with  men,  this 
International  Congress  of  Women  demands  their 
political  enfranchisement. 

IV.  INTERNATIONAL  COOPERATION 
10.   Third  Hague  Conference 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  urges 
that  a  third  Hague  Conference  be  convened  im- 
mediately after  the  war. 

II.   International  Organization 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  urges 
that  the  organization  of  the  Society  of  Nations 


APPENDIX  III  155 

should  be  further  developed  on  the  basis  of  a  con- 
structive peace,  and  that  it  should  include : 

a.  As  a  development  of  the  Hague  Court  of 
Arbitration,  a  permanent  International  Court  of 
Justice  to  settle  questions  or  differences  of  a 
justiciable  character,  such  as  arise  on  the  inter- 
pretation of  treaty  rights  or  of  the  law  of  nations. 

h.  As  a  development  of  the  constructive  work  of 
the  Hague  Conference,  a  permanent  International 
Conference  holding  regular  meetings  in  which 
women  should  take  part,  to  deal  not  with  the  rules 
of  warfare  but  with  practical  proposals  for  further 
International  Cooperation  among  the  States. 
This  Conference  should  be  so  constituted  that  it 
could  formulate  and  enforce  those  principles  of 
justice,  equity  and  good  will  in  accordance  with 
which  the  struggles  of  subject  communities  could 
be  more  fully  recognized  and  the  interests  and 
rights  not  only  of  the  great  Powers  and  small 
nations  but  also  those  of  weaker  countries  and 
primitive  peoples  gradually  adjusted  under  an 
enlightened  international  public  opinion. 

This  International  Conference  shall  appoint: 

A  permanent  Council  of  Conciliation  and  In- 
vestigation for  the  settlement  of  international 
differences  arising  from  economic  competition, 
expanding  commerce,  increasing  population  and 
changes  in  social  and  political  standards. 


156  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

12.   General  Disarmament 

The  International  Congress  of  Women,  advocat- 
ing universal  disarmament  and  realizing  that  it 
can  only  be  secured  by  international  agreement, 
urges,  as  a  step  to  this  end,  that  all  countries 
should,  by  such  an  international  agreement,  take 
over  the  manufacture  of  arms  and  munitions  of 
war  and  should  control  all  international  traffic 
in  the  same.  It  sees  in  the  private  profits  accruing 
from  the  great  armament  factories  a  powerful 
hindrance  to  the  abolition  of  war. 


13.   Commerce  and  Investments 

a.  The  International  Congress  of  Women  urges 
that  in  all  countries  there  shall  be  liberty  of 
commerce,  that  the  seas  shall  be  free  and  the 
trade  routes  open  on  equal  terms  to  the  shipping 
of  all  nations. 

h.  Inasmuch  as  the  investment  by  capitalists 
of  one  country  in  the  resources  of  another  and  the 
claims  arising  therefrom  are  a  fertile  source  of 
international  complications,  this  International 
Congress  of  Women  urges  the  widest  possible 
acceptance  of  the  principle  that  such  investments 
shall  be  made  at  the  risk  of  the  investor,  without 
claim  to  the  official  protection  of  his  government. 


APPENDIX  III  157 

14.   National  Foreign  Policy 

a.  This  International  Congress  of  Women  de- 
mands that  all  secret  treaties  shall  be  void  and 
that  for  the  ratification  of  future  treaties,  the 
participation  of  at  least  the  legislature  of  every 
government  shall  be  necessary. 

h.  This  International  Congress  of  Women 
recommends  that  National  Commissions  be 
created,  and  International  Conferences  con- 
vened for  the  scientific  study  and  elaboration 
of  the  principles  and  conditions  of  permanent 
peace,  which  might  contribute  to  the  develop- 
ment of  an  International  Federation. 

These  Commissions  and  Conferences  should 
be  recognized  by  the  Governments  and  should 
include  women  in  their  deliberations. 

15.   Women  in  National  and  International 

Politics 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  declares 
it  to  be  essential,  both  nationally  and  inter- 
nationally to  put  into  practice  the  principle  that 
women  should  share  all  civil  and  political  rights 
and  responsibilities  on  the  same  terms  as  men. 

V.  THE  EDUCATION  OF  CHILDREN 

16.  This  International  Congress  of  Women 
urges  the  necessity  of  so  directing  the  education 


158  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

of  children  that  their  thoughts  and  desires  may 
be  directed  towards  the  ideal  of  constructive 
peace. 

VI.  WOMEN  AND  THE  PEACE  SETTLEMENT 
CONFERENCE 

17.  This  International  Congress  of  Women 
urges,  that  in  the  interests  of  lasting  peace  and 
civilisation  the  Conference  which  shall  frame 
the  Peace  settlement  after  the  war  should  pass 
a  resolution  affirming  the  need  in  all  countries  of 
extending  the  parliamentary  franchise  to  women. 

18.  This  International  Congress  of  Women 
urges  that  representatives  of  the  people  should 
take  part  in  the  conference  that  shall  frame  the 
peace  settlement  after  the  war,  and  claims  that 
amongst  them  women  should  be  included. 

VII.  ACTION  TO  BE  TAKEN 
19.   Women's  Voice  in  the  Peace  Settlement 

This  International  Congress  of  Women  resolves 
that  an  international  meeting  of  women  shall 
be  held  in  the  same  place  and  at  the  same  time  as 
the  Conference  of  the  Powers  which  shall  frame 
the  terms  of  the  peace  settlement  after  the  war 
for  the  purpose  of  presenting  practical  proposals 
to  that  Conference. 


APPENDIX  III  159 

20.   Envoys  to  the  Governments 

In  order  to  urge  the  Governments  of  the  world 
to  put  an  end  to  this  bloodshed  and  to  establish 
a  just  and  lasting  peace,  this  International  Con- 
gress of  Women  delegates  envoys  to  carry  the 
message  expressed  in  the  Congress  Resolutions 
to  the  rulers  of  the  belligerent  and  neutral  nations 
of  Europe  and  to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

These  Envoys  shall  be  women  of  both  neutral 
and  belligerent  nations,  appointed  by  the  Inter- 
national Committee  of  this  Congress.  They 
shall  report  the  result  of  their  missions  to  the 
International  Committee  of  Women  for  perma- 
nent Peace  as  a  basis  for  further  action. 


APPENDIX  IV 

MANIFESTO 

Issued  by  Envoys  of  the  International  Congres^s 
OF  Women  at  The  Hague  to  the  Governments 
OF  Europe  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States 

Here  in  America,  on  neutral  soil,  far  removed 
from  the  stress  of  the  conflict  we,  the  envoys  to 
the  Governments  from  the  International  Congress 
of  Women  at  The  Hague,  have  come  together  to 
canvass  the  results  of  our  missions.  We  put  forth 
this  statement  as  our  united  and  deliberate  con- 
clusions. 

At  a  time  when  the  foreign  offices  of  the  great 
belligerents  have  been  barred  to  each  other,  and 
the  public  mind  of  Europe  has  been  fixed  on  the 
war  offices  for  leadership,  we  have  gone  from  capi- 
tal to  capital  and  conferred  with  the  civil  govern- 
ments. 

Our  mission  was  to  place  before  belligerent 
and  neutral  alike  the  resolutions  of  the  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Women  held  at  The  Hague 

i6o 


APPENDIX  IV  l6i 

in  April;  especially  to  place  before  them  the 
definite  method  of  a  conference  of  neutral  nations 
as  an  agency  of  continuous  mediation  for  the 
settlement  of  the  war. 

To  carry  out  this  mission  two  delegations  were 
appointed,  which  included  women  of  Great 
Britain,  Hungary,  Italy,  the  Netherlands,  Sweden, 
and  the  United  States.  One  or  other  of  these 
delegations  were  received  by  the  governments  in 
fourteen  capitals,  Berlin,  Berne,  Budapest,  Chris- 
tiania,  Copenhagen,  The  Hague,  Havre  (Belgian 
Government),  London,  Paris,  Petrograd,  Rome, 
Stockholm,  Vienna,  and  Washington.  We  were 
received  by  the  Prime  Ministers  and  Foreign 
Ministers  of  the  Powers,  by  the  King  of  Norway, 
by  the  Presidents  of  Switzerland  and  of  the 
United  States,  by  the  Pope  and  the  Cardinal 
Secretary  of  State.  In  many  capitals  more  than 
one  audience  was  given,  not  merely  to  present  our 
resolutions,  but  for  a  thorough  discussion.  In 
addition  to  the  thiity-five  governmental  visits  we 
met  —  everywhere  —  members  of  parliaments 
and  other  leaders  of  public  opinion. 

We  heard  much  the  same  words  spoken  in 
Downing  Street  as  those  spoken  in  Wilhelmstrasse, 
in  Vienna,  as  in  Petrograd,  in  Budapest,  as  in  the 
Havre,  where  the  Belgians  have  their  temporary 
government. 

M 


l62  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

Our  visits  to  the  war  capitals  convinced  us 
that  the  belligerent  Governments  would  not  be 
opposed  to  a  conference  of  neutral  nations ;  that 
while  the  belligerents  have  rejected  offers  of 
mediation  by  single  neutral  nations,  and  while 
no  belligerent  could  ask  for  mediation,  the  crea- 
tion of  a  continuous  conference  of  neutral  nations 
might  provide  the  machinery  which  would  lead 
to  peace.  We  found  that  the  neutrals  on  the  other 
hand  were  concerned,  lest  calling  such  a  conference 
might  be  considered  inopportune  by  one  or  other 
of  the  belligerents.  Here  our  information  from 
the  belligerents  themselves  gave  assurance  that 
such  initiative  would  not  be  resented.  "My 
country  would  not  find  anything  unfriendly  in 
such  action  by  the  neutrals,"  was  the  assurance 
given  us  by  the  foreign  Minister  of  one  of 
the  great  belligerents.  "  My  Government  would 
place  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  institution," 
said  the  Minister  of  an  opposing  nation.  "What 
are  the  neutrals  waiting  for.?"  said  a  third,  whose 
name  ranks  high  not  only  in  his  own  country, 
but  all  over  the  world. 

It  remained  to  put  this  clarifying  intelligence 
before  the  neutral  countries.  As  a  result  the 
plan  of  starting  mediation  through  the  agency  of 
a  continuous  conference  of  the  neutral  nations 
is  to-day  being  seriously  discussed  alike  in  the 


APPENDIX  IV  163 

Cabinets  of  the  belligerent  and  neutral  countries 
of  Europe  and  in  the  press  of  both. 

We  are  in  a  position  to  quote  some  of  the  ex- 
pressions of  men  high  in  the  councils  of  the  great 
nations  as  to  the  feasibility  of  the  plan.  "You 
are  right,"  said  one  Minister,  "that  it  would  be 
of  the  greatest  importance  to  finish  the  fight  by 
early  negotiation  rather  than  by  further  military 
efforts,  which  would  result  in  more  and  more  de- 
struction and  irreparable  loss."  "Yours  is  the 
sanest  proposal  that  has  been  brought  to  this 
office  in  the  last  six  months,"  said  the  Prime 
Minister  of  one  of  the  larger  countries. 

We  were  also  in  position  to  canvass  the  objec- 
tions that  have  been  made  to  the  proposal,  testing 
it  out  severely  in  the  judgment  of  those  in  the 
midst  of  the  European  conflict.  It  has  been 
argued  that  it  is  not  the  time  at  present  to  start 
such  a  process  of  negotiations,  and  that  no  step 
should  be  taken  until  one  or  other  party  has  a 
victory,  or  at  least  until  some  new  military  balance 
is  struck.  The  answer  we  bring  is  that  every 
delay  makes  more  difficult  the  beginnings  of  nego- 
tiations, more  nations  become  involved,  and  the 
situation  becomes  more  complicated ;  that  when 
at  times  in  the  course  of  the  war  such  a  balance 
was  struck,  the  neutrals  were  unprepared  to  act. 
The  opportunity  passed.     For  the  forces  of  peace 


1 64  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

to  be  unprepared  when  the  hour  comes,  is  as 
irretrievable  as  for  a  military  leader  to  be  unready. 

It  has  been  argued  that  for  such  a  confer- 
ence to  be  called  at  any  time  when  one  side  has 
met  with  some  military  advantage,  would  be  to 
favor  that  side.  The  answer  we  bring  is  that  the 
proposed  conference  would  start  mediation  at  a 
higher  level  than  that  of  military  advantage. 
As  to  the  actual  military  situation,  however,  we 
quote  a  remark  made  to  us  by  a  foreign  Minister 
of  one  of  the  belligerent  Powers.  "Neither 
side  is  to-day  strong  enough  to  dictate  terms,  and 
neither  side  is  so  weakened  that  it  has  to  accept 
humiliating  terms," 

It  has  been  suggested  that  such  a  conference 
would  bind  the  neutral  governments  cooperating 
in  it.  The  answer  we  bring  is  that,  as  proposed, 
such  a  conference  should  consist  of  the  ablest 
persons  of  the  neutral  countries,  assigned  not  to 
problems  of  their  own  governments,  but  to  the 
common  service  of  a  supreme  crisis.  The  situa- 
tion calls  for  a  conference  cast  in  a  new  and  larger 
mould  than  those  of  conventional  diplomacy, 
the  governments  sending  to  it  persons  drawn  from 
social,  economic,  and  scientific  fields  who  have 
had  genuine  international  experience. 

As  women,  it  was  possible  for  us,  from  belliger- 
ent and  neutral  nations  alike,  to  meet  in  the  midst 


APPENDIX  IV  165 

of  war  and  to  carry  forward  an  interchange  of 
question  and  answer  between  capitals  which 
were  barred  to  each  other.  It  is  now  our  duty 
to  make  articulate  our  convictions.  We  have 
been  convinced  that  the  governments  of  the  bellig- 
erent nations  would  not  be  hostile  to  the  insti- 
tution of  such  a  common  channel  for  good  offices ; 
and  that  the  governments  of  the  European 
neutrals  we  visited  stand  ready  to  cooperate 
with  others  in  mediation.  Reviewing  the  situa- 
tion, we  believe  that  of  the  five  European  neutral 
nations  visited,  three  are  ready  to  join  in  such  a 
conference,  and  that  two  are  deliberating  the 
calling  of  such  a  conference.  Of  the  intention 
of  the  United  States  we  have  as  yet  no  evidence. 

We  are  but  the  conveyors  of  evidence  which  is 
a  challenge  to  action  by  the  neutral  governments 
visited — by  Denmark,  Holland,  Norway,  Sweden, 
Switzerland,  and  the  United  States.  We  in 
turn  bear  evidence  of  a  rising  desire  and  intention 
of  vast  companies  of  people  in  the  neutral  coun- 
tries to  turn  a  barren  disinterestedness  into 
an  active  good-will.  In  Sweden,  for  example, 
more  than  400  meetings  were  held  in  one  day  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  calling  on  the 
government  to  act. 

The  excruciating  burden  of  responsibility  for 
the  hopeless  continuance  of  this  war  no  longer 


1 66  WOMEN  AT  THE   HAGUE 

rests  on  the  wills  of  the  belligerent  nations  alone. 
It  rests  also  on  the  will  of  those  neutral  govern- 
ments and  people  who  have  been  spared  its  shock 
but  cannot,  if  they  would,  absolve  themselves 
from  their  full  share  of  responsibility  for  the 
continuance  of  war. 
Signed  by 

Aletta  Jacobs  [Holland]. 

Chrystal  Macmillan  [Great  Britain]. 

RosiKA  ScHWiMMER  [Austro-Hungary]. 

Emily  G.  Balch  [United  States]. 

Jane  Addams  [United  States]. 


APPENDIX  V 

INTERNATIONAL   PLAN  FOR  CONTINU- 
OUS  MEDIATION   WITHOUT  ARMISTICE 

By  Julia  Grace  Wales 

Delegate  from  the  University  of  Wisconsin  to  the 
International  Congress  of  Women  at  The  Hague 

Definition 

The  International  Plan  for  Continuous  Media- 
tion without  Armistice  suggests  that  an  Inter- 
national Commission  of  experts  be  formed,  to  sit 
as  long  as  the  war  continues.  The  members  of 
the  commission  should  have  a  scientific  but  no 
diplomatic  function ;  they  should  be  without 
power  to  commit  their  governments.  The 
Commission  should  explore  the  issues  involved 
in  the  present  struggle,  and  in  the  light  of  this 
study  begin  making  propositions  to  the  belliger- 
ents in  the  spirit  of  constructive  internationalism. 
If  the  first  eflTort  fail,  they  should  consult  and 
deliberate,  revise  their  original  propositions  or 
offer  new  ones,  coming  back  again  and  again  if 

167 


1 68  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

necessary,  in  the  unalterable  conviction  that  some 
proposal  will  ultimately  be  found  that  will  afford 
a  practical  basis  for  actual  peace  negotiation. 
The  Commission  should  be  established  without 
delay,  on  neutral  initiative. 

Condensed  Argument 

Our  argument  for  Continuous  Mediation  with- 
out Armistice  rests  on  the  following  convictions: 

(1)  That  humanity  should  be  able  to  find  some 
method  of  avoiding  prolonged  wholesale  destruc- 
tion; 

(2)  That  on  both  sides  there  are  people  who 
believe  themselves  to  be  fighting  in  self-defense, 
who  desire  a  right  settlement,  and  who  ought  not 
to  have  to  fight  against  each  other;  that  it  is  an 
ultimate  outrage  against  humanity  that  they  have 
to  do  so; 

(3)  That  the  only  way  to  straighten  the  tangle 
is  to  adopt  and  persistently  employ  the  device 
of  placing  simultaneous  conditional  proposals 
("will  you  —  if  the  rest  will  ?")  before  the  bellig- 
erents; that  neither  side  can  think  correctly  or 
effectively  unless  it  has  among  the  data  of  its 
thinking,  exact  knowledge  as  to  how  the  enemy 
(not  merely  the  government  but  the  various 
elements  of  the  people)  would  react  to  every 
possible  proposal  for  settlement; 


APPENDIX  V  169 

(4)  That  truth  tends  to  work  on  the  mind, 
and  that  to  place  sane  standing  proposals  before 
the  nations  would  tend  to  ripen  the  time  for  peace ; 

(5)  That  delay  is  dangerous  because  bitterness 
and  the  desire  for  revenge  are  growing  stronger, 
and  the  civil  power  in  all  warring  countries  is 
daily  growing  weaker  in  proportion  to  the  mili- 
tary; 

(6)  That  there  ought  to  be  a  commission  of 
experts  sitting  throughout  the  w^ar  and  in  some 
way  holding  the  possibilities  of  settlement  before 
the  belligerents ;  that  world  consciousness  is  try- 
ing to  break  through;  that  a  world  thinking 
organ  should  be  created  and  that  the  creation  of 
such  an  organ  at  this  juncture  would  concentrate 
and  render  effective  the  idealism  of  all  nations 
and  open  the  possibility  of  establishing  upon  a 
deposed  militarism,  the  beginnings  of  World- 
Federation. 

The  following  objection  has  been  raised  against 
the  neutral  propaganda  for  Continuous  Mediation 
without  Armistice. 

The  neutral  argument  assumes  that  both  sides  are 
equally  in  the  wrong  —  an  assumption  contrary 
to  truth  and  hence  fundamentally  immoral. 

In  reply  to  this  charge  we  emphatically  assert 
that  the  neutral  propaganda  for  Continuous 
Mediation    without    Armistice,    makes    no    such 


I70  WOMEN  AT  THE  HAGUE 

assumption.     What   it   does    assume   is   that   in 
any  case  there  are    some    right-thinking   people 
on  both  sides.     In  an  appeal  for  cooperation  to 
right-thinking    people    in    all    countries    neutral 
and  belligerent,  whatever  their  national  prejudices 
in  connection  with  the  present  war,  we  believe 
that  it  would  be  out  of    lace  to  dogmatize  as  to 
which  side,  if  either,  represents  the  cause  of  in- 
ternational righteousness  for  which  we  desire  to 
contend,    in    working    for    the    establishment    of 
an   international    commission.     We   believe   that 
any   nation   sincerely   fighting  for  the   right  has 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  plan  and  much  to  gain, 
that  the  Plan  is  on  the  side  of  any  country  that 
is    on    the    side    of    international    righteousness. 
We  believe  that  the  plan  of  Continuous  Mediation 
without  Armistice  will  tend  to  assist  and  reward 
right  motives  in  every  country  and  to  thwart  wrong 
motives.      We   believe   that   the    citizen   of    any 
country    understanding    our    plan    and    believing 
that  his  own  country  is  fighting  for  the  right  will 
feel  that  the  plan  is  favourable  to  his  own  national 
cause.     We  believe  that  the  plan  if  carried  out, 
would,    while    thwarting    short-sighted    national 
selfishness,    tend   to   bring   ultimate   good   to   all 
lands  —  the     genuine     and     permanent     benefit 
which  depends  on   the  welfare  of  the  family  of 
nations   as   a  whole.     Among  those  working  for 


APPENDIX  V  171 

the  establishment  of  the  International  Commis- 
sion are  people  of  various  national  sympathies. 
Probably  there  is  no  one  working  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  International  Commission  who 
has  not  a  personal  opinion  as  to  which  side  on  the 
whole  represents  the  cause  of  right.  We  feel 
however,  that  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  sin- 
cerity of  the  belligerents,  the  responsibility  of  the 
war,  and  the  attitude  which  the  various  nations 
will  take  in  the  settlement  need  not  prevent  us 
from  working  together  provided  that  we  are 
agreed  in  our  desire  for  the  establishment  of  a 
permanent  peace  based  on  principles  of  inter- 
national righteousness. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


''  I  "HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of 
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The  Newer  Ideals  of  Peace 

jzmo.  Cloth,  Leather  Back,  %i.2£ 

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The  author  of  "  The  Virginian  "  has  written  a  new  book  which 
describes,  more  forcibly  and  clearly  than  any  other  account  so  far 
published,  the  meaning,  to  America,  of  the  tragic  changes  which  are 
taking  place  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  German  people. 

Written  with  ease  and  charm  of  style,  it  is  prose  that  holds  the 
reader  for  its  very  beauty,  even  as  it  impresses  him  with  its  force.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  there  will  come  out  of  the  entire  mass  of  war 
literature  a  more  understanding  or  suggestive  survey.  ^ 

"  Owen  Wister  has  depicted  the  tragedy  of  Germany  and  has  hinted  at  the 
possible  tragedy  of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  We  wish  it  could  be  read  in  full 
by  every  American."  —  The  Outlook. 

The    Military   Unpreparedness  of   the 
United  States 

By  FREDERIC  L.  HUIDEKOPER  • 

Cloth,  8vo,  $4.00 

By  many  army  officers  the  author  of  this  work  is  regarded  as  the 
foremost  military  expert  in  the  United  States.  For  nine  years  he  has 
been  striving  to  awaken  the  American  people  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
weaknesses  of  their  land  forces  and  the  defencelessness  of  the  coun- 
try. Out  of  his  extensive  study  and  research  he  has  compiled  the 
present  volume,  which  represents  the  last  word  on  this  subject.  It 
comes  at  a  time  when  its  importance  cannot  be  overestimated,  and 
in  the  eight  hundred  odd  pages  given  over  to  the  discussion  there 
are  presented  facts  and  arguments  with  which  every  citizen  should 
be  familiar.  Mr.  Huidekoper's  writings  in  this  field  are  already 
well  known.  These  hitherto,  however,  have  been  largely  confined 
to  magazines  and  pamphlets,  but  his  book  deals  with  the  matters 
under  consideration  with  that  frankness  and  authority  evidenced  in 
these  previous  contributions  and  much  more  comprehensively. 


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AN   IMPORTANT   NEW   WORK 

With  the  Russian  Army 

By  Col.   ROBERT  McCORMICK 

Illustrated^  8vo,  $2.00 

This  book  deals  with  the  author's  experiences  in  the  war  area. 
The  work  traces  the  cause  of  the  war  from  the  treaty  of  1878  through 
the  Balkan  situation.  It  contains  many  facts  drawn  from  personal 
observation,  for  Col.  McCormick  has  had  opportunities  such  as  have 
been  given  to  no  other  man  during  the  present  engagements.  He 
has  been  at  the  various  headquarters  and  actually  in  the  trenches. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  of  the  volume  is  the  concluding 
one  dealing  with  great  personalities  of  the  war  from  first-hand  ac- 
quaintance. 

The  work  contains  a  considerable  amount  of  material  calculated 
to  upset  generally  accepted  ideas,  comparisons  of  the  fighting  forces, 
and  much  else  that  is  fresh  and  original. 

A  Journal  of  Impressions  in  Belgium 

By  may  SINCLAIR 

Clotk^  i2mo^  $i.jo 

May  Sinclair  is  the  latest  English  author  who  has  written  a  book 
as  the  outgrowth  of  the  war,  and  a  most  unusual  and  fascinating 
book  it  is,  too.  It  is  entitled  "  A  Journal  of  Impressions  in  Belgium" 
and  records  the  mental  effect  produced  by  the  war  upon  the  dis- 
tinguished novelist  when  she  went  to  the  front  with  an  ambulance 
corps.  The  journal  cannot  properly  be  termed  a  war  book ;  it  is, 
rather,  a  May  Sinclair  book  in  that  it  deals  with  her  reaction  to  the 
fighting  and  the  experiences  through  which  she  passed,  and  not  with 
the  military  or  technical  side  of  the  engagements.  It  is  perhaps  as 
graphic  a  picture  as  has  yet  come  to  America  from  the  war  zone. 


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The  Life  of  Clara  Barton 

By  PERCY  H.   EPLER 

Decorated  Cloth,  Illustrated^  $2.jo 

The  life  of  Clara  Barton,  now  written  in  full 
for  the  first  time,  is  of  special  interest  when  the 
women  of  all  nations  are  doing  their  share  of 
work  in  the  various  battlefields  of  Europe. 
From  the  wealth  of  material  at  his  disposal 
the  author  has  made  a  most  fascinating  book. 
Miss  Barton's  friend,  he  has  supplemented  his 
own  knowledge  of  her  with  facts  drawn  from 
her  diaries,  correspondence,  lectures,  and  ad- 
dresses. It  has  been  his  purpose,  in  so  far  as 
is  possible,  to  reveal  the  story  of  Miss  Barton's 
life  through  her  own  writings,  and  consequently 
much  use  is  made  of  hitherto  unpublished  manu- 
scripts. The  result  is  a  vivid  picture  of  a  woman 
whose  passion  for  humanity  was  so  great  that 
even  though  she  was  eighty  years  old  she  went 
to  the  front  at  the  beginning  of  the  Spanish  War. 
Mr.  Epler  reviews  Miss  Barton's  entire  career 
from  her  school-teaching  days,  through  the  bat- 
tlefields of  the  Civil  War,  the  Franco-Prussian 
War,  and  the  Spanish  War,  to  her  death. 


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UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  EACILITY 


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GEO.  E.  CHALMERS 

Books.  Slalionem  and  Pidurei 
RUTLAND.  VT. 


